After a bit of wrangling involving the Master Mage - released
by the world's revolution from his rather humiliating imprisonment as
a piece of garden statuary in Anthy Himemiya's old rose garden on the
Ohtori Academy campus - and his first horrified, then resigned
reaction to the intentions of the newly-invested Trinity of the Tenth
World to -leave- the Tenth World for a time, the Valkyrie carried the
weary adventurers to Asgard. There they were installed in guest
chambers in Odin's palace for the night.
All of them but Corwin, anyway; he was immediately closeted
with the Aesir Council to give a full accounting of himself and his
quest. Nall offered to come with him, but Corwin told him no; the
dragon was exhausted, and anything he had to tell the Council he could
tell them just as well after a night's rest.
Man, Corwin thought to himself with a wry, tired internal
smile as he faced the Council table and prepared to speak:
Frey's gonna have an aneurysm.
I have a message from another time...
Eyrie Productions, Unlimited
presents
UNDOCUMENTED FEATURES FUTURE IMPERFECT
- SYMPHONY OF THE SWORD No. 2 -
Seventh Movement: Ceremony and Celebration
Benjamin D. Hutchins
with Anne Cross
Philip J. Moyer
Martin Rose
"Holding Out for a Hero" by Jim Steinman
"Birthday" by the Beatles
"Possession" by Sarah McLachlan
"A Whiter Shade of Pale" by Procol Harum
(c) 2002 Eyrie Productions, Unlimited
Early evening in the Golden City of Asgard, capital of the
realm of the gods. Amid the towers and minarets of the great palace
of Odin, one lone light shone in the darkness of the North Tower,
spilling out of an open doorway onto one of the tower rooms'
balconies.
At the rail of that balcony, silhouetted by the light from the
door behind her, Utena Tenjou gazed out at the glittering panorama of
the City of the Gods. A cool wind off the sea to the west ruffled her
hair and the tails of her jacket. She looked up at the stars and felt
no pain - another victory on a day filled with them - and sighed.
Could it really be over? If so, victory felt stranger than
she could have imagined; or maybe she was just jump-lagged. Or
whatever one calls the lag that results from being teleported across
dimensions. She wondered what time it was on Tomodachi. She didn't
get to bring her watch with her, so she wasn't even sure how long
she'd been gone. She didn't know if she should be tired or wide
awake, happy or sad, so she just hovered in this strange state in
between.
She felt a hand on her arm and turned; Anthy was at her side,
looking out over the golden spires of Asgard.
"It's strange," she mused softly. "I feel as though I know
this place, and yet I've never been here, never seen it before."
Utena nodded. "I have," she said. "Twice, Corwin's brought
me here... it's his mother's city, and so his as well. More so now, I
guess, now that he's won his full godhood... " She tore herself away
from that subject and turned, studying Anthy with a thoughtful
expression.
"You've changed," she observed after a few moments, her tone
conversational, not accusatory.
Anthy nodded. "So have you," she replied.
They went inside and talked for hours. Utena told Anthy about
her time in Midgard, about Kate and Corwin and all her friends at the
Institute, about the wonders of space and visiting other worlds.
Anthy told Utena of her quest for the True Elements, her time at
Zagato's Tower, and the High Priest's tragic fall.
When they'd finished the general outlines, they sat in their
armchairs before the palace room's fireplace and regarded each other
in the orange light of the fire. The only sounds were the ticking of
the grandfather clock in the corner and the crackle of the fire.
"We've been through a lot," Utena said.
"That we have," Anthy agreed.
"We're different people now than we were when we started."
"Certainly."
There was a pause just long enough to start being awkward.
Then Utena smiled an uncharacteristically soft smile and said
quietly, "But none of it changes the way I feel."
Anthy smiled in return. "Nor I."
Utena grinned. "Then I guess... " She trailed off, the grin
fading, and Anthy leaned forward in her chair, concern on her face.
"What?" she asked softly.
Utena gazed pensively at Anthy for several long moments, her
expression sober - watched the firelight flicker, reflected in the
Rose Bride's eyes.
"The Grand Tournament's over," she mused.
Anthy nodded. "It is."
"I won."
"You did."
"There's no question of that any more, not after that last
battle. My investiture is complete." She placed a hand against the
front of her jacket, fingertips touching the notch just below the
swell of her bosom. "Even if Clef hadn't confirmed it - I can feel it
in here."
Anthy nodded again, patiently letting Utena get around to the
point at her own pace.
"Which means... " said Utena before trailing off into that
thoughtful silence again. She tapped at her chin with a fingertip for
a few moments, then got to her feet, crossed the rug to Anthy's chair,
and held out her hands. Anthy took them and let herself be straightened
as well; then she stood quietly, eyes raised to Utena's face.
She noted abstractly that they'd both grown taller in the
eighteen months they'd been apart, but their relative heights were
still about the same; and less abstractedly how good it felt to be
able just to stand here, hold Utena's hands, and -look- at her face
this way, with her real eyes instead of the one in her mind. To hear
the Rose Knight's voice, feel the warmth of her hands, was as
satisfying as Anthy had known it would be throughout their long
separation.
"During the Tournament," Utena said slowly, "I... I resisted
the idea that I could be engaged to you. When I wasn't dismissing the
whole Tournament as a bizarre game, I usually thought of our engagement
as a convenient shorthand for the way the Tournament linked our fates
together. That wasn't any reflection on you, personally... I just
didn't think I could love a woman, any woman, like that."
"I know," said Anthy, nodding. "And if - "
Utena shook her head. "Let me finish, please," she interjected
gently, and Anthy fell silent. "But while I was living in Midgard, I
had a lot of time to think about it, and a few experiences that gave me
pause and made me -do- that thinking. And the conclusion that I came
to was that, all things being equal, that part of my nature hadn't
changed." She cracked a wan little grin and said, "Deep down inside,
I'm still basically just a regular girl."
Anthy bowed her head. "I understand," she said.
"No," said Utena, tipping the Rose Bride's chin back up to
look her in the eye. "You -don't-. And I didn't either, for a long
time. It confused the hell out of me for the better part of a year.
But what I finally realized was that when you're involved, Anthy
Himemiya," she added with a stronger, more characteristic grin, "all
things -aren't- equal. I think it's very likely that you are the only
-woman- in the whole of Creation I could possibly say this to, and
that being the case, I'd damn well better do it right."
Then she transferred both of her hands to Anthy's right and
slowly sank to one knee on the rug, keeping her eyes locked on Anthy's
(wide with surprise) the whole time.
"Anthy Himemiya," said Utena softly, "I love you. If it's
what you want, I want us to be together - now, tomorrow, forever.
Don't think about the Tournament - if you have any obligation from
that, then as the Prince of Cephiro, I release you. Answer this
question with only your heart, because it's only your heart's answer
I'm interested in: Will you marry me?"
Anthy stared down at the kneeling Rose Knight, absolutely
dumbstruck, for several seconds; then she smiled, knelt down to be her
equal again, and embraced her.
"Of course I will," she murmured, trying not to cry, and Utena
choked back a sob of her own as she returned the embrace. Then they
both seemed to realize that it was silly trying not to cry, and didn't
bother trying any more.
When she could speak again, Utena's first words, whispered
into the fragrant curtain of Anthy's violet hair, were, "I'm sorry it
took me so long to come back."
"You couldn't help that," Anthy replied, her own voice a
little hoarse. "I'm sorry I nearly cost us everything with my lapse
on the platform... "
Utena sat back on her haunches, hands on Anthy's shoulders,
and gave her a wry, tear-streaked grin. "Let's not sit here and
apologize to each other all night," she said with a chuckle.
Anthy smiled again. "Let's not," she agreed.
They got up off the floor, dried their tears, and then
adjourned to the sofa near the balcony doors, where they looked out at
the stars of Heaven and thought for a while.
It was Anthy, curled up at Utena's side with her head on her
Rose Knight's shoulder, who broke the contemplative silence:
"So... where do we go from here?"
Utena stirred, roused from a thoughtful reverie involving the
constellation Mjolnir (Thor's Hammer), which was visible just beyond
the spire of the Great Library to the southeast.
"Mm?" she asked, reorganizing her thoughts.
"Literally, I mean," Anthy went on. "We have no home to go
back to in Cephiro, particularly. I don't really have a home at all,"
she added with a faint shrug.
"Well," Utena replied, "it's always been my thought that when
I found you I'd take you back to Midgard, if you were willing to go.
Of course, I never counted on you being the High Priestess of Cephiro
at the time," she added with a wry chuckle. Then she laughed again, a
bit less wryly than ruefully, and added, "Oh -man-... "
"What?" Anthy asked.
"Oh, it just occurred to me... it's Friday night... if I were
to go back to my life in Midgard, I'd have final exams starting on
Monday morning." She shook her head. "I guess there's not much point
in doing -that-... "
"Why not?"
"Go back to school? After everything that's happened in the
last 24 hours?"
"Certainly," said Anthy, "if it's what you want to do. We're
free people, Utena. We can do whatever we want to do. If you want to
go back to... what was the place called? Jeraddo?"
Utena nodded. "That's the name of the planet. Well, moon,
actually."
"Mm. If you want to go back to Jeraddo and finish school
there, perhaps go on to college, whatever you like - then do it!
That was what you fought for, wasn't it - freedom for us to do what we
like?"
"Well, yeah, but... is that what -you- want to do?"
"It is if it's what you want to do," Anthy replied; then she
smiled at the expression that came onto Utena's face. "Now don't look
at me like that," she chided the Rose Knight gently. "I'm not going
mindlessly along with your wishes, disregarding my own desires. What
I desire is to be with you, wherever you are, wherever you can be
happy. That's not very fashionable, I realize, but I've never been a
very fashionable girl," she added with an indulgent chuckle.
"If you want to go back to Jeraddo," she went on, "then as
long as there's a place for me there beside you, I'll be happy there.
Besides - there are all your friends to consider. Surely -they- will
be continuing their school careers. If I'm to meet them, get to know
them, be part of their lives as they're part of yours, then we'll
-have- to go back, won't we?"
Utena considered that, then smiled. "You've trapped me with
logic," she said, patting Anthy's left hand where it lay on her
middle. "OK. If that's what you really want, then we'll go back. I
doubt you'll be able to enroll at DSM when we get there - it'll be too
late in the term - so you'll have to wait for next year... "
Anthy chuckled again. "That's all right," she said. "I
certainly wouldn't place into your graduating class if I tried to do
so right -now-... I haven't been to school in eighteen months, and
before that... do you have any idea how many times I retook the eighth
grade?"
The question was asked with such a straight face that Utena
didn't realize for a moment that it was a joke. When she did, she
snickered, then chuckled, then gave it up and laughed uproariously,
hugging Anthy tight against her with her left arm.
"Good point," said Utena when she could breathe again. "Don't
worry, though. Professor Kaoru will make sure you pass the placement
tests in the fall. You'll graduate with the rest of us. It'd be too
inconvenient if you didn't," she added with a grin.
"How -is- Miki?" wondered Anthy. "He looked so worried the
last time I saw him, I was almost tempted to take him with me," she
added with a fond smile.
Miki Kaoru had been her favorite by far of the last group of
formally-sanctioned fighters for her hand; with Utena's prompting,
she'd actually been able to befriend the brilliant young fencer,
making him her third friend, after Utena and Chu Chu, in the entire
world. In early days, when Utena had merely been Anthy's friend and
hadn't acknowledged that she could ever be anything more, she'd been a
staunch advocate of Miki as Anthy's boyfriend, but nothing had ever
come of it; he'd been too shy and Anthy had been silently bound by the
Tournament, which Utena did not yet understand.
"He's great," Utena replied, "or at least he was the last time
I saw him. He and Kate and Juri spent this past week at a music
conference."
Anthy cocked an eyebrow. "Juri at a music conference?"
"Oh, not as a performer or anything," Utena answered. "She
just went along 'cause she's Kate's girlfriend."
Anthy cocked the other eyebrow. "Really?"
"Yep, really," Utena replied. "Midgard's been good to all of
us," she went on. "Miki's learned how to have fun, Juri's learned to
relax a little... Saionji's mostly non-crazed... did you get a chance
to talk to him while he was back in Cephiro?"
"No, not really," Anthy replied. "We were fairly certain we
were being listened to all the time, so we had to be very careful. He
played his role quite well - well enough that he had -me- convinced,
until he went out of his way to make me understand."
"Mm. Well, when you get a chance, I think you're in for quite
a surprise. He's really changed. And - we've talked about this a few
times - he feels like -hell- for what he put you through back in the
bad old days. Expect him to fall at your feet next time you see him."
Anthy smiled. "I'll try to keep him from hurting himself,"
she said, and then added more seriously, "But that's really good to
hear. He... he did treat me very badly, but at the same time... in a
way he was... this will sound silly, all things considered, but he was
-gentle- about it. Not physically, but there was an emotional depth
to him. I always felt that he really cared for me - it was just his
expression of it that was... twisted."
Utena nodded. "Yeah. He asked me to tell you when I saw you
again - well, tell you pretty much exactly that."
Anthy took that in, then nodded. "It will be... interesting -
living among all of them without the Tournament looming over us. And
adapting to the changes in them all... "
Utena laughed. "-That- works both ways," she assured her
bemused fiancee. "When they see how -you've- changed... "
"I suppose," Anthy allowed with a smile. "It seems it will be
a learning experience for everyone involved. I'm... I'm looking
forward to it."
Utena squeezed her again and said, "So are we all."
Anthy snuggled in a little closer, squeezing back, and held
that warm, pleasant tableau for several minutes. Then, reluctant to
move, she nonetheless glanced at the clock and said, "I wonder if the
Council have finished with Sir Corwin yet."
Utena blinked, then chuckled. "Sounds weird to hear him
called that," she explained to Anthy's puzzled look in response.
"Well," said Anthy, "he -is- a Rune Knight... "
"I suppose," Utena said. "It's just... -I- call him that,
sometimes, just to get his goat. Before any of this happened, I sort
of dubbed him my Iron Knight... but... that was just a joke."
"Of course," said Anthy, not pursuing it. If Utena still
hadn't learned that, when you're a prince, dubbing somebody a knight
becomes more than a joke if there's truth in your heart when you do
it, well, that wasn't anything a lecture from Anthy would cure.
"Listen," said Utena awkwardly. "Earlier, on the platform...
I want to explain. I... I kissed him because... well... "
Anthy's smile was gentle. "You kissed him," she said
patiently, "because you love him."
Utena's face burned. "Look, it's not like that - I never lost
faith that I'd see you again. Never... you know, turned to someone
else. I -do- love him, but he and I, we're not... I guess I... I
don't know how to explain it," she finished lamely. "I didn't fully
realize I did love him until not all that long ago, and by then I'd
finally figured out that I really could love -you- as... as my bride,"
she said, her fading blush resurging. "So... he and I... Why did you
want to know if the Council's done with him?" she suddenly asked, as
if it had just occurred to her to wonder.
Anthy let the blatant subject change pass gracefully - there
would be time for them to talk all this out later, and from the sound
of it, it would take a bit of talking - and replied, "I want... I
-need-... to thank him. He snatched success from the jaws of my
failure, and... " She chose her next words with care, in light of the
preceding conversation. "... I'm only just beginning to realize the
true extent of what it's cost him."
"Oh. Well, that's reasonable enough," Utena said, more to
herself than Anthy. "I don't know how long the Council will keep
him... could be all night."
"Mm." Anthy considered this for a moment, then rose. "I
think I'll go and wait. I don't think I'll be able to sleep anyway,
if I don't make the effort tonight."
Utena smiled. "OK. I'd say be careful, but in Asgard, of all
places, that seems like kind of a silly thing to say."
Anthy reluctantly disengaged herself, got to her feet, bent
down, and kissed Utena lightly.
"Good night," she said. "You'll most likely be asleep when I
return."
"You... could wake me," said Utena softly, feeling most unlike
herself as a wave of hot-faced shyness washed over her; but Anthy only
smiled her patient smile again.
"I'll be in the next room," she replied. "It'd be bad luck
otherwise. Good night, my love."
Utena waved and watched her go, then got up, went back out
onto the balcony, and looked up the the stars with a mighty sigh.
"This," she said to no one, "is going to take quite a bit of
getting used to... "
Behind her, she heard a faint knock on the hallway door. She
gave the stars another curiously wistful look before turning and going
to answer it.
"Kate!" she said, surprised, for Kaitlyn Hutchins, Corwin's
half-sister and her roommate and best friend from the Deedlit Satori
Mandeville Memorial Institute, was standing in the hall.
The brown-haired bandleader was looking rather frazzled - she
looked about like Utena had felt upon first arriving in Asgard,
with her long, slightly curly hair mussed, her face fatigue-smudged,
and her clothes rumpled, but her brown eyes were bright behind her
wire-rimmed spectacles and she grinned from ear to ear at the sight of
her best friend's face.
"H-hello, Utena," said Kate. "I'm t-t-told you've had a
b-busy day t-t-too."
Utena made a happy noise and drew her roommate into the room
with a hug, then turned her loose and said, "You have -no- idea.
Sorry about just up and disappearing like that... "
Kate shrugged. "It was C-Corwin's fault, really," she said,
grinning. "S-Skuld found your b-bed empty and w-white rose p-p-petals
scattered all over the r-room... didn't take a g-genius to figure out
wh-where you must've g-gone."
Utena slapped her forehead. "So not only did I disappear, I
made a mess. Great," she said wryly.
"It s-smells nice," Kate said. "Listen, I c-can't stay...
I've g-g-got to get everything ready for t-tomorrow. I j-just wanted
to stop b-by and c-c-cong-gratulate you." She looked curiously around
the room. "Is she h-here? I'd l-l-love to m-meet her."
"No... she's out right now," said Utena, regretfully. "I'm
not sure when she'll be back. She went to see if she could find
Corwin and thank him for... what he did."
Kate nodded soberly. "I h-heard the b-b-basics from S-Skuld.
Sounds p-pretty heavy. I h-h-hope he'll b-be OK."
"So do I," Utena replied, a bit heavy-hearted. Then she
brightened, with some effort, and said, "Ah, what're we worried about?
Corwin's always OK."
Kate agreed, but Utena was fairly sure her friend was only
humoring her. Fortunately, Kate's pet neotiger Sergei took that
opportunity to slip casually past his mistress and butt Utena in the
knee with his head, demanding attention. Utena laughed, went down on
one knee and played with the tiger for a while. Then, noting Kate's
increasing yawns (and her own), she'd given Serge one last scruffle
and sent the two on their way to bed with another hug for Kate.
Once they had gone, the pink-haired Duelist went back out onto
the balcony again. A smile tugged at the corner of her mouth as she
amended her hours-ago thought. She certainly -should- have known
whether to be happy or sad. Tonight she slept alone by choice and
tradition rather than circumstance, and that was a hell of an
improvement over the last year and a half.
She wondered about the significance of her new role, and
Anthy's, and Corwin's, in the structure of Cephiro. Grudgingly,
Master Clef had confirmed Corwin's assertion that, with the revolution
just concluded, they could safely leave the Tenth World, but for how
long? The problems that had brought them all to the dire situation
they'd just fought through stemmed from a Pillar's inattention and a
Prince's absence, after all.
Still, Clef had let them leave without putting up too much of
a fight, and what objections he did raise, Utena had the feeling they
were raised as a matter of form. That was enough to put her questions
to rest for the moment... and besides, she was tired, too tired to
dwell on such abstract things just now. It would work out, one way or
another. Corwin, tired and haggard though he'd been, had had that
look in his eye that said he had an idea, and Utena had faith in
Corwin's ideas.
Utena sighed. Poor Corwin...
"Dios," she mused to the stars above, stars whose names Corwin
had taught her. "I know you're gone now... which is too bad, 'cause
I'd really like to talk to you."
In another wing of Odin's palace, Miki Kaoru was sitting at a
desk in one of the suitably palatial guest bedrooms, feeling a bit
baronial in the fuzzy blue bathrobe that had been hanging on the back
of the bathroom door, and went through a pile of sheet music. The
frantic activity involved in rounding up, briefing and transporting
the entire Deedlit Satori Mandeville Memorial Institute Student
Symphony Orchestra had left him as tired and frazzled as Kaitlyn, but
he couldn't go to sleep yet. His exacting mind wouldn't let him claim
that reward until he'd discharged the last of his duties as deputy
conductor and made certain that Kaitlyn's master score was in good
order for tomorrow's performance.
And what a performance! Other orchestras had done command
performances for royalty before - but what other mortal orchestra
could claim a command performance given at the command of -God-?
Miki chuckled slightly at the thought.
There was a soft knock at the door. Dorothy, who was
reading in an armchair by the fire, got up and went to answer it.
Miki's sharp ears caught what sounded like a familiar tone in the
hushed conversation that followed, and he lost his place. Blinking in
disbelief, he glanced up.
"Miki," said Dorothy quietly, "someone to see you," and then
she excused herself and closed the door behind her.
Miki got up out of his chair and stood looking at his visitor
in disbelief.
After over a year, seeing Kozue was still like looking into a
mirror and seeing the person he would have been if he had been born a
girl.
She was dressed in a uniform similar to the one Wakaba
Shinohara had been wearing when she'd come across from Cephiro to
Midgard the previous year, the uniform of the old Ohtori Academy
Student Council as it had been redesigned at the start of that school
year: a gold-and-scarlet-trimmed black jacket, trim white pants, and
shiny black shoes. Her hair was still the same, a messy gamin of a
slightly darker shade of blue than her brother's. She'd grown about
the same amount as he had, putting their deep blue eyes on a level as
they'd always been.
The Kaoru twins stood and stared at each other for several
seconds in total silence. Miki tried to trip the stopwatch in his
hand, but it slid out of his fingers and thumped to the carpeted
floor.
Then Kozue, tears in her eyes, crossed the room and grabbed
him up in an embrace.
"They told me you were dead," she whispered - her throat was
too constricted to allow for anything more - "but I didn't believe
them. I never believed them! Never!" she added fiercely, squeezing
him in her arms until he almost squeaked.
"It's... good to see you, Kozue," Miki replied; he was
painfully aware, as he returned her embrace, that it was a pitifully
lame thing to say, but it was all he could think of as his own eyes
filled with tears.
She gave him one last hard squeeze, then stepped back, a
laughing smile on her face despite the still-falling tears. "Is that
the best you can do?!" she demanded, the laughter in her voice putting
the lie to the "angry" words.
Miki smiled sheepishly. "I guess so," he replied.
Kozue laughed some more - a bright, clear laugh, free of
sardony or bitterness - and then yanked him back into her embrace once
more. "God, Miki, I've missed you, I love you... "
Miki smiled, rubbing his sister's back as he returned her
renewed hug. There had been a time, not all that long ago, when he'd
despaired of ever hearing her say those three words again - and that
was -before- he'd disappeared unexpectedly from her life for more than
a year.
"I love you too, Kozue," he told her, and for a few minutes
they just stood there, gently rocking on their feet, lost in the
moment.
Then Kozue released him again, leaned back, grinned her sly
old grin, and said, "So... who's the redhead?"
Much like Miki, Juri Arisugawa was spending the evening in one
of the guest rooms in Odin's palace; in her case she was sharing it
with Kaitlyn. Unlike Miki, however, she was not participating in the
rapid preparations the two musicians were now involved in, figuring
that it would be better for her to stay out of their way and to leave
the professionals to their work. Instead, she had showered and
changed into one of her customary nightgowns that she'd brought along
from their earlier trip to Terpsichore III, and now she sat at the
desk in the bedroom, skimming through one of her intermediate physics
texts, occasionally glancing at the room's clock and wondering just
where in Heaven (not meant as a euphemism) Kaitlyn had wandered off
to. The last she had known, Kate and Sergei the neotiger had headed
to Tenjou's suite to check how the pink-haired Duelist was doing, but
that had been an hour ago...
She was just about to throw on a bathrobe and go looking for
her earstwhile companion when there was a knock at the door. Curious,
Juri got to her feet and headed over to answer it, expecting it to be
one of the servants of the palace asking if everything was all right,
or one of her friends from the Institute asking where Kaitlyn was.
After all, Kaitlyn wouldn't knock, and Serge couldn't, at least as far
as she was aware - though she wouldn't put it past the intelligent
neotiger to try.
So, it came as quite a surprise to Juri Arisugawa to find
Shiori Takatsuki standing at her doorway.
"So, where's the brunette?" Shiori asked with an amused smile
as Juri took a step back, an equal measure of surprise and concern
on her face. Like Kozue and Wakaba, Shiori was wearing a trim
Ohtori Academy Student Council uniform that Juri reflected flattered
her figure exceptionally well, even as a part of her mind tried to
give a cautionary warning - according to Tenjou, Shiori had worn
that very same uniform once before, and the memories associated with
that time weren't pleasant ones.
But Juri shook her head to clear it, banishing the fears with
a faint smile and an inviting gesture with her hand as she held the
door open for her old friend.
"Kaitlyn's not in - I was just about to go searching for
her, but I suppose it can wait a little longer. Um... won't you come
in, Shiori?"
Shiori smiled slightly and did as Juri asked. As Juri
turned around after she closed the door, she asked the shorter
raspberry-haired girl, "So... how'd you know where I was staying -
and about Kaitlyn?"
"Oh, I passed Wakaba in the hall, and she told me where to
find you and your friend," Shiori said with a sly grin, a grin that
told the taller woman in an instant just what the content of that
accidental discussion had been.
Juri blinked, her eyes relaying the surprise, embarrassment,
and worry she could never fully express on her face. "Then... you
know... "
Shiori nodded seriously, her violet eyes never leaving Juri's
green eyes for a second as she turned to face her. "Yes. I do. And
you know what, Juri? I think it's great. I'm just happy that you're
-back-, you're -alive-, and doing damn well for yourself if you don't
mind my saying so."
She grinned as she watched the mixed expressions flit across
Juri's features. Finally the redhead cracked a little smile and said,
not bitterly but with gentle wryness,
"I thought you didn't notice that kind of thing."
Shiori grinned. "I'm straight, Juri, not -stupid-," she
replied; then her own expression softened as she reached forward and
took Juri's slim fingers into her own, squeezing them gently together.
"Look, what I came to ask you is: do you want a second... well,
technically third, I guess - chance to rebuild our friendship, given
all that's happened? Because I sure do. I may not have been able to
give you what you wanted," she added with a brief downcast look, "but
that doesn't mean I haven't missed you."
"-Yes-," Juri said with a hushed whisper, squeezing back,
her wide eyes expressing everything that words could not say.
"-Good-," Shiori said with a decisive nod. Then, becoming
mock-brisk, she went on, "Now, you got some time to fill in your old
friend about what the hell you've been -up- to this past year? Or are
you just about ready to turn in for the night? It can wait until
later if you want," she continued, nodding towards Juri's current
state of dress.
"I... think I can manage that," Juri said, smiling softly as
she led Shiori to one of the plush armchairs by the fireplace.
Anthy glanced up as the corridor door to the Aesir Council's
private chamber opened. She gathered her concentration back from
recalling some of her sorcery lessons; her green eyes focused on the
doorway as the majority of the gods who had been in the conference
chamber dispersed off down the hall.
Following them, looking as if he'd fallen from a speeding
train (and Anthy should know, having done that once), came Sir Corwin.
His silver-forelocked black hair was slicked back to his head from
being repeatedly pushed back by weary hands; some of it straggled down
his cheeks. His brands and his ice-blue eyes were dull, and it seemed
to Anthy as if all the sparkle had simply drained out of him.
It was almost impossible to believe that he was the same young
man who had forced her out of the Pillar Circle and into Utena's arms.
Then, he'd been... well, not 'vibrant', exactly, with his face smeared
with blood and haunted by pain, but... -alive-, certainly, in a way
that was hard to define. He'd had a spark, a vitality that shone
through the tarnish of his injuries and the fatigue of battle. He had
impressed her immensely with his endurance, for she knew that he must
have gone through a wringer even -before- arriving on the dueling
platform and commencing the incredible ordeal he'd undergone there.
Now that he and his loved ones were safe, he could relax that
iron control that had kept him on his feet and fighting throughout the
final battle with Akio; and Anthy reflected that, after the injuries
he'd suffered (now mystically healed, but the fatigue of having
suffered them remained) and the Herculean efforts he'd expended,
Corwin had every right to be wiped out.
I'll have to wait to speak to him, Anthy decided. But I
think perhaps I had better see to it that he gets home to bed, or he
may well fall asleep in the corridor.
She stood up and went over to the exhausted god. Corwin was
leaning on the pillar of the doorway and looked as if he had no will
to move ever again.
"Sir Corwin?" she said quietly. "Sir Corwin?"
He began to slide down the pillar, apparently unaware of her
altogether.
Anthy caught him around the waist and shoulders, held him up;
the touch of her hands seemed to rouse his attention slightly. "Aunt
Bell?" he mumbled.
"No," she said, smiling softly.
"Oh... Anthy?" He tried to straighten up. "Did you need
somethin'?"
She shook her head. "I wanted to talk to you, but you are
much too tired, and I can wait until you have rested and recovered
from your... " (here she smiled,) "... exploits today."
He rubbed his eyes with one hand. "Mmm, right... " he
mumbled, slumping again.
Anthy regarded his nearly comatose face, then ducked her
head around the doorway. The Council's conference chamber had the
deserted-shambles feel of a battlefield after the war has moved on.
The whiteboard at the far end was covered in diagrams and scribbles,
some of which she understood, most of which she didn't. Crumpled
notepaper was scattered around the wastebasket. More papers littered
the table, along with empty white Chinese-food boxes, some with
chopsticks poking out of the corners of their closed lids.
The leather-padded door at the room's far end also stood open,
affording a partial view of what looked like an opulent office; a
white-bearded old gentleman, very big and burly despite his age, sat
at the desk, at right angles to the door, bent over a document. Anthy
blinked, realizing instinctively who he must be, and reflected with a
private little grin that it was something of a shock to see the
Almighty doing paperwork.
In the Council chamber itself, only two people remained. A
white-haired woman with dusky skin like her own and a huge man with
tawny red hair were still there, the man at a place at the table, the
woman perched casually on the table's corner. They were talking in
quiet voices so as not to disturb Odin.
"... not going to let this lie, I'm afraid," the man was
saying in a concerned undertone.
The woman grumbled irritably - not at him, it seemed to Anthy,
but in more general discontent. "He'll get over it," she replied.
"He'll have to. Odin has spoken - relations are to be reopened and
our young hero and his friends are to be welcomed - and that's all
there is to it." She patted the man's arm. "Besides. Once he
actually gets to know them, he'll come around. You know it's
impossible to dislike that girl and her friends."
"I hope you're right," replied the man dubiously.
Feeling like a bit of an eavesdropper, Anthy interrupted
softly, "Excuse me... but could you please tell me where Lord Corwin's
rooms are? He seems to be falling asleep in the hallway - " (and
here, almost as if on cue, Corwin began to slide down the pillar
again) " - and I'm not sure he can find his own way home."
The woman looked up, and Anthy stared for a moment - her
facial structure was rather remarkably like Anthy's own, and for a
moment, Anthy wondered if this woman and her late mother could have
been related.
Then the woman gave her a sly smile. "Thor, you big bear,
give the lady a hand putting Corwin to bed, huh?" she ordered, giving
him a light punch in the arm.
Thor rose to his feet (indeed reminding Anthy of a big shaggy
bear), gave her a wide smile, and came over. Corwin had, by this
point, slid to the floor and was mumbling in his sleep.
"Right," the big man said. He picked up Corwin with
surprisingly gentle motions, and grinned again at Anthy. "C'mon," he
said, indicating the way with his head.
With long strides, he went off down the corridors, out into
Asgard's gleaming streets, Anthy trailing along behind. Finally they
reached a set of rooms up a flight of stairs from the street.
Carefully, Thor set the exhausted young god on his bed, and
grinned at Anthy again. "I figure you can handle the rest of it," he
said cheerfully. "Right?"
Anthy looked at Corwin's light frame and smiled wryly. "I
think so," she agreed.
"Good," Thor rumbled, and clapped her (gently) on the shoulder.
"If you're looking for something to do later this evening, come
drinking with Urd and me," he said, and he went whistling out of the
apartment, swung over the railing, and strolled up the street.
Anthy went back inside and looked pensively at the sleeping
god, gently touching his silvered forelock. Then, with neat fingers,
she undid his boots, put them next to the door. She slipped an arm
under his shoulders and pulled the heavily embroidered tunic off over
his head.
He roused slightly then, and blinked at her. "What're -you-
doing here?" he wondered sleepily.
"Making certain you don't wake up stiff from sleeping in a
hall somewhere," Anthy said cheerfully, amused by the fact that the
ten-minute nap on the way to his apartment had restored the spring to
his hair, even if he wasn't completely awake.
"Oh," Corwin mumbled, and smiled at her sleepily. "Why?"
He sounded like a little boy; Anthy ruffled his hair. She
decided she liked his sleepy smile. "Because you're a nice person,"
she told him softly.
"Mmm," Corwin said, snuggling down under the covers, and Anthy
tucked them under his chin. For a moment, before his heavy lids slid
down again, their eyes met, and a strange, dreamy quality came into
his sleepy smile.
"I remember you... " he mumbled, and then he gave himself
fully up to sleep.
Anthy blinked. I wonder what he meant by that? she thought
as she dimmed the lights and slipped out of the front door. I doubt
he'll remember in the morning... mm. I should come and make sure he
wakes up and gets breakfast. Tomorrow will likely be busy as well,
though (she added with a wry mental smile) hopefully less painful.
Nodding to herself, Anthy headed back to the palace and the
chambers she was sharing with Utena, to wait out the remainder of the
night.
She was up with the sun in the morning, feeling refreshed
despite her long, long day and relatively short time in bed. Part of
it was just because the guest-chamber beds here in Odin's palace were
somewhat superior to the conditions under which she'd been sleeping
lately; but the bulk could be laid at the doorstep of her reborn life,
and the much lighter heart that rebirth had left her with. Anthy
opened the wardrobe next to her bed and surveyed its contents,
graciously provided by her hosts. It was all quite ornate by her
usual standards, but with most of her own clothes lost, she couldn't
afford to be picky; and she had to admit that, whoever picked it out,
they had a good eye for color.
She took her time about her morning toilet, luxuriating in the
best bath she'd had since that hotel in Hidama. Then she figured out
the elaborate green tunic and cloak she'd taken from her wardrobe, put
her hair up in its accustomed style out of sheer force of habit, and
left the room. The rest of the suite was quiet, as expected. She
looked briefly into the other bedroom, smiled at the sleeping disarray
of her Rose Prince, then gently closed the door and went to see to the
Iron Knight.
Anthy found the door to Corwin's apartment on the Street of
the Eternal Heroes unlocked, and softly let herself in. She was quite
surprised to hear the sounds of cooking from the little place's
kitchen, and went quietly around the corner into that room to
investigate.
There was a woman standing at the range, humming softly to
herself as she fried a couple of eggs. She had long, golden-brown
hair and a trim figure, and wore a most un-Asgardian-looking
housedress and apron. Hearing Anthy's entrance, she turned, a look of
surprise on her pretty face, and Anthy realized from her markings that
she must be a goddess.
"Oh, hello," said the goddess, smiling. With a speculative
look in her soft blue eyes, she went on, "If I had to guess, I'd say
you must be Anthy."
"Uh, that's right," said Anthy, bowing slightly. "I'm sorry,
but I don't - "
"Oh, that's all right. I'm Belldandy Morisato, Corwin's aunt.
Pleased to meet you. Feel free to call me Bell if you like - all
Corwin's friends do."
Anthy wasn't quite sure what to do, so she bowed again.
"Um... thank you," she said. "I'm not... actually sure if I -am-
Corwin's friend, yet, but... "
Bell's smile got a little wider. "Of course you are," she
said, and she said it in such a manner that Anthy felt the doubt
banished from her heart almost of its own volition, as though it fled
from this woman's calm certitude. "Did you come to make sure he
didn't oversleep too?" the goddess went on, her smile becoming a bit
impish.
"Well... actually, yes," said Anthy with a slightly
embarrassed smile. "I'm... not much of a cook, though... so I was
going to take him out for breakfast," she went on.
"Well, I'm almost finished up here. Or I was - have -you- had
breakfast?"
"No, but you don't need to - "
Bell waved a hand and made a dismissive noise. "I'm used to
feeding -five- every morning," she said. "It's no trouble at all.
You just go and wake him, and I'll whip you up a little something for
your own breakfast. Go on, now. I've got everything under control
here. Corwin has to be in the All-Father's office at 10, so there's
plenty of time yet."
Anthy smiled less nervously - it was just -impossible- to
worry about anything with this woman smiling at her - and went softly
to Corwin's bedroom.
He was still curled up in almost exactly the same position
she'd left him in the night before, his jagged black hair (but for the
one silver shock in front) sprawled out on his pillow, one hand flung
out across the covers in front of him. Anthy couldn't help but smile
at the sight of him - there was something very... well, Utena-like,
about the way he looked when he slept.
Reluctantly, she leaned over him and prodded gently at his
shoulder. "Sir Corwin?"
"Mnngh," he replied, and slowly opened one eye. It focused on
her slowly, blinked once, and then went a bit wide as he sat up,
shaking his head. "Uh - Miss Himemiya!" he blurted. "What... what
are you doing here?"
Anthy smiled; no one ever called her "Miss Himemiya" except
Miki Kaoru. "Please, Sir Corwin - if anyone's earned the right to
call me Anthy, it's you."
He shook his head again - not in refusal, but to clear it -
and said, "Uh... OK. What time is it, anyway?"
"8:30," Anthy replied, glancing at the clock on the far wall.
"Your aunt is fixing you breakfast - she asked me to make sure you
didn't oversleep. She says you have an appointment with the
All-Father at 10."
Corwin nodded, raking his hands through his hair (which didn't
impose much order on it, but did rearrange it considerably). "OK," he
repeated, in the tone of a man trying to put things in order in his
mind. "That means I'll have to wear my dress uniform... I hope I have
one here, the last one I wore is still in the Valkyrie Hall... "
"If you're certain you won't go back to sleep," said Anthy
with an impish grin, "I'll leave you to get ready... "
"Huh? Oh!" Corwin seemed to realize for the first time that
he wasn't wearing a shirt, and got a bit red. "Uh, sure. Why don't
you do that... "
Giggling a little, Anthy complied. She and Belldandy chatted
for a little while about the upcoming events of the day while they
waited. When Corwin emerged, scrubbed, wet-haired, wearing some of
his dress uniform (trousers, undershirt, boots) and carrying the rest,
Bell greeted him, congratulated him, told him she was very proud of
him, gave him a kiss, and then excused herself and left the two young
people to their breakfast.
As the front door latched with a quiet click after Mrs.
Morisato, the silence descended. It was not that Anthy wanted this
conversation to be awkward, but the goddess's mediating influence had
kept Corwin from becoming so formal, and now that she was gone...
Almost as one, the two of them got up and made a sort of
nervous dive for the sink and the dirty dishes therein. They bumped
into each other, which prompted both of them to smile, although, Anthy
thought, Corwin looked awfully nervous.
"I -" Corwin began, just as Anthy said, "Sir - "
Corwin reddened, and looked down at his toes, and scratched at
the back of his head. "Sorry, go ahead."
"Oh dear, please don't be like that," she said, trying to
sound light. "You look like Ascot when he's let one of his monsters
in amongst my roses."
He looked up through his shock of black hair, and the
expression on his face took on a wistful "you're not mad at me?" look
that reminded Anthy so strongly of Ascot that she had to struggle to
keep from smiling.
Then he frowned thoughtfully as a practical concern intruded
on his awkward mood.
"Kid sorcerer, about so high, good with animals?" he asked.
Anthy nodded. "I understand you had a bit of difficulty with
him on your quest with the Rune Knights."
"You might say that," Corwin replied, looking a bit indignant.
"Little punk sicced a giant lobster on me and turned Nall against us
for a minute there."
"Oh, dear," said Anthy. "You mustn't blame Ascot and Caldina
for their actions," she went on after a moment's thought. "They were
both at Zagato's Tower while I was there. They didn't understand the
full truth of the Prophecy; they saw it as their duty as sorcerers to
defend the Pillar." She sighed, a sad look crossing her face at the
memory of her late half-sister. "They didn't realize that Emeraude
wanted... -needed-... to end it."
Corwin was silent, so she glanced over her shoulder to see him
studying her with a quiet, contemplative air. "You were at Zagato's
Tower," he mused.
Anthy nodded. "For several months. What little training I've
had in the use of my mystic abilities came from him. He was grooming
me to be his replacement as High Priest when a new trinity was
invested... but he didn't expect that day to come quite so soon as it
did... "
"So the Rose Crown was always yours," said Corwin thoughtfully.
"When you wore it yesterday, I wasn't sure whether that was because it
had always been yours, or because it was an artifact of the High
Priest's office. Why did you make it?"
Anthy wiped at a plate, then put it in the drying rack. As
she started to wash the glasses, she quietly related the tale of how
Priest Zagato had barred her from his Tower, thinking she was an agent
of Akio's.
As she told him of how she had gone to the Rune Gods to
prove that she was free of Akio's taint, Corwin picked up a dishtowel
and began drying the glasses in the rack.
"In the end, I had to make the last rose out of my love for
Utena," she concluded, "since there isn't a Rune God of the Rose. And
then I used the Crown to get into the Tower, and Priest Zagato had to
believe I was telling the truth."
"Mmm," Corwin said. "I'd've believed you too, if you showed
up on -my- doorstep with that in your hands. You're an accomplished
sorceress, though, especially for making that last rose," he added.
Anthy considered, then glanced at the one remaining pan in the
sink. "If I had had it with me when Alcyione broke the walls of the
Tower, I don't think Akio could have laid a hand on me," she added
wearily. "But I didn't wear it all the time, and once Akio had me,
there was no chance to reclaim it."
Corwin started to open his mouth, but Anthy reached out and
gently touched his lips with her fingertips. "I was ready to kill
myself yesterday, Sir Corwin. If you hadn't come when you did, I was
going to throw myself over the edge of the platform, rather than
accept the burden that you took up.
"But you came, and though you weren't Utena, you saved me from
my own deathwish. And then you brought me my Prince when she couldn't
come, herself, and you saved -both- of us from the folly of turning
our backs on the twisted creature that was trying to control Cephiro."
Her green eyes bored into his blue ones. "For that, you will -always-
have my gratitude. Divinity or not, you took a terrible burden on
yourself for Utena's sake."
She waited a moment while the last words she'd said sunk in -
watched him blush as he realized she had seen what had passed between
him and Utena.
"It's... I never wanted to take her away from you." The words
came out in a rush. "I mean, yes, I did it for Utena, but... well, I
did it for you too. I couldn't let you take that burden, it would
have destroyed you... and destroyed her with you."
He took a deep breath, ran his hand down his face, and said in
a soft, almost breaking voice, "I saw... when the two of you stood
together, just before Akio, damn him, put a hand to you... what I
saw... " He shook his head, met her eyes again. "It was the most
perfect, beautiful thing I have ever seen. More beautiful than this
Golden City, more perfect than the stars in the sky. How could I not
act to protect that? Compared to that... being the Pillar is nothing.
I can see that perfection every time I look at the two of you,
and... and it gives me strength."
His eyes almost glowed for a moment, and she saw that he meant
every word. But then the glow faded, and he looked at her and tried
to smile. "So you don't need to worry that I'll stand between you. I
can step back now... now that you're here. I won't interfere with what
you both have. Now that you're back, she... " He paused, swallowed,
and went on in a near-whisper, "... she won't need me anymore."
Anthy shook her head and put a hand gently atop Corwin's.
"After what I saw you do yesterday," she said quietly, "I can't
imagine you would be so cruel to her."
Corwin glanced up at her, surprise showing through the grief
in his eyes. "Cruel?" he asked hoarsely. "I don't know what you - "
"Corwin, Utena -loves- you," said Anthy matter-of-factly.
"You are a part of her - her life, her heart, her soul. For you to
tear yourself away on my behalf... " She shook her head again,
murmuring almost to herself, "No, I mustn't allow you to do that. It
would be a tragedy for Utena to lose you now, just because she has
finally found me. There would be no justice in that, and I would
never get the chance to know you. Your aunt counted me among your
friends, but I would be honored, Sir Corwin, if you would count me
among them yourself."
He blinked at her, and then smiled slowly. "You mean that,
don't you?"
"Utena loves you," Anthy repeated, with a quiet hint of
laughter in her voice. "I've learned to trust her judgement in such
matters. And I am not -just- the Rose Bride anymore, Sir Corwin. I
can make my own decisions, and one of them is that I would like to get
to know you better."
Corwin blinked at her, and then went down on one knee and took
her hand in his. "Lady Anthy, I would be honored to continue to know
both you and your Prince as my friends... but let it be known that I
will never take any action to part you. So swears Corwin Ravenhair,
Rune Knight of Iron."
Anthy smiled, then composed herself into seriousness. He had
the same kind of loyalty Utena had - even in the short time she'd
known him, he'd reminded her of her Rose Knight several times - and
she knew that this was as far as she would get with him on this topic
today. She knew she would have to be content with this, at least for
the moment; and so long as she could keep him from running away
entirely, she figured all else that was required was simple patience.
Patience was a thing Anthy Himemiya possessed in abundance.
With equal solemnity, she replied, "Anthy Himemiya, witch and
Rose Bride, so accepts the oath of the Iron Knight. But," she added
with a wry smile, "if you keep kneeling on the kitchen floor, you're
going to get crumbs on your dress uniform, and since I was meant to
make sure you got to your appointment on time and well groomed,
perhaps you'd best get up."
"Erk," Corwin said, straightening quickly. "You're right."
"Do come and talk to us, Sir Corwin," Anthy added, as Corwin
began to struggle into his dress tunic, "if you think you've done
something to hurt us? Because if you disappear, it will be difficult
to do anything to fix the situation. I learned that much from having
Utena vanish. There were so many things left unfinished, and it's
only now that we can put them all to rest."
Her piece said, Anthy reached and helped him with the heavy
dress tunic. With her help, Corwin finally got his head and arms
through the correct holes in the tunic, and his hair stood out in all
directions before he ran a hand through it. (That didn't really tame
it, of course, but it got most of the spikes heading in the same
direction, anyway.)
Then he picked up the thread of their interrupted conversation
and told Anthy, "Only if you'll promise me not to take blame onto
yourself that isn't yours. Utena mentioned you had a habit of doing
that."
Anthy smiled lightly. "Not any more," she said, and handed
him his comb.
He pulled the comb through his hair, and then smiled and said,
"So... do I get to dance with you at your wedding now?"
Anthy's smile was fractionally more amused as she said, "That
rather depends on whether you come to the wedding or whether you fade
into the night and leave us wondering where you went, doesn't it?"
That morning, while Corwin spoke with the All-Father, a great
and implacable Power went to work, gathering people together from
Cephiro, Asgard, Vanaheim, Alfheim and the far corners of Midgard,
preparing sites, supervising the preparation of vast quantities of
food, and performing almost impossible feats of logistics to make
possible, on almost no notice at all, not one but two great
ceremonies. That Power's Name was Verthandi, and as she worked her
succession of miracles, her sisters, her husband and her children knew
that the only safe place to be was somewhere out of her way.
One of those feats of logistics had actually been accomplished
the night before, with the aid of the Valkyrie. The hundred and
twenty-seven students who made up the Deedlit Satori Mandeville
Memorial Institute Student Symphony Orchestra had been tracked down at
all points of the compass, scattered as they were for spring break.
Each one, with instruments, music, uniform and other impedimentia, had
been convinced to drop whatever he, she or it was doing and come with
this total stranger on a wild ride through an Instant Gate (there
being no time for a conventional transit of Bifrost) to the Golden
City. They had done this not out of a thirst for adventure or an
unwise trust in strangers wearing armor, but because the Valkyrie
"recruiters" had each carried a holosealed letter from Kaitlyn - and
to the members of her orchestra, that was good enough.
Heather McClellan, sophomore, first-chair clarinet, had once
joked that the Student Orchestra would follow Kaitlyn and Miki into
Hell if need be; now she was a bit startled, but surprisingly relaxed,
to learn that they had followed their leaders into Heaven instead.
Now, after a rather surreal night's sleep in the guest
quarters of Odin's palace, they were gathered in a large room that
looked like it was probably normally a banquet hall, checking their
gear and awaiting their final briefing - like a little military force,
the resemblance heightened by the rather martial lines of their new
uniforms. They were all burning with curiosity as to just where they
were (those who couldn't quite believe what they'd been told the night
before) and why they were here, but they knew that Kate and Miki would
tell them soon.
Azalynn dv'Ir Natashkan had no trouble believing where she
was; she knew perfectly well that Corwin's mother was a goddess and
believed it entirely. Her religion didn't have gods of its own, so it
was easily amenable to the idea of other people's gods being real.
She looked up as the door to the room opened and Kate entered;
following her were Miki and someone else, someone Azalynn had never
seen before.
Someone familiar-looking... because she looked just like Miki!
Azalynn jumped to her feet and trotted over, eyes wide. Miki
turned to see her approaching and smiled.
"Is this her?" Azalynn asked eagerly.
Miki nodded. "It is indeed." He took a half-step back and
said, "Kozue, I'd like you to meet a dear friend of mine, I told you a
little about her last night - this is Azalynn dv'Ir Natashkan.
Azalynn - my sister, Kozue."
Azalynn grinned from ear to ear and seized a somewhat startled
Kozue by the hands. "Oh, wow!" she said. "You guys really -are-
twins, aren't you? That's amazing! I'm so pleased to meet you," she
went on, turning her attention more directly to Kozue. "Miki's told
me so much about you. You're really pretty, too, by the way."
Kozue blinked. "Uh... thank you," she said.
"I hope we get to be as close as Miki and I already are,"
Azalynn said; then she leaned closer and continued with a confidential
grin, "You see, I have this untested theory about twins... "
Miki chuckled as his sister's face went bright red; then he
gently rescued her from Azalynn, who released her graciously and went
back to her place in the orchestra. Still a little flustered, Kozue
accompanied her brother to the head of the gathered group, where she
was introduced by Kate before the briefing began.
For her part, Skuld had other errands to run. Utena finally
got up, showered, and dressed, sometime around noon. When she emerged
from her bedroom, still scrubbing at her wet hair with a towel, it was
to see the Norn of Tomorrow standing near the sitting-room couch in
her white and scarlet court robes, grinning from ear to ear. Utena
grinned too, and went to embrace the buoyant goddess.
"Didn't get much of a chance to talk to you yesterday," she
said. "You must be really proud. I know I am."
Skuld nodded. "I feel like I'm about to float away," she
said. "I don't know what the Council's final decision will be, of
course, but... " She shook her head. "I just wish I could have been
there for his debriefing. I'm recused from the Council's proceedings
on anything to do with his Ascension for obvious reasons, so I'll have
to wait until I can read the minutes from last night - or get him
alone long enough to ask him about it - before I can find out what he
-did-... "
Utena sat down on the couch and patted a cushion. "Well, have
a seat," she said. "I can tell you the part I was there for, anyway.
You could have knocked me down with a light breeze when I came out of
that Gate - I thought I was still asleep, dreaming about the end of
the Tournament again - and there was Corwin, looking like he'd just
been run over by a truck. And then... well... get comfortable, it's
kind of a tangled story."
Skuld sat down and tried not to look embarrassingly eager.
Utena caught her at it, gave her a grin, and they both broke up
laughing for a few minutes. When Skuld recovered herself, she looked
curiously around. "Say, where's Anthy? " she asked. "I was hoping
you could introduce me. I was sort of preoccupied yesterday... "
Utena sighed with a rueful smile. "People keep missing her,"
she said. "She went over to where Aunt Bell's putting up Kate and her
crew. Somebody over there wanted to talk to her... "
Anthy Himemiya had experienced a lot of strange things in her
life, many of them expected, many of them unexpected. On the great
scale of things, she would have had to rank "being all but genuflected
to by Kyouichi Saionji" somewhere on the "unexpected" end.
"Please," she tried again, "get up, Kyouichi. You don't need
to do this."
"I feel I must," replied Saionji. "I treated you unpardonably,
and yet, now that we can both speak freely, I must ask your pardon -
it's all that I can do. Please, Anthy. Please, please forgive me."
"Of -course- I forgive you, Kyouichi," she said, touching his
shoulder. "You weren't well. Don't you think I, of all people, am in
a position to understand that? I know better than anyone what the
thing who thought he was my brother could do to people's minds."
"But if I had been stronger," Saionji insisted, "I could have
resisted. Tenjou did. If I could have been more like her... "
Anthy couldn't help it. Faced with such a remarkable thing
coming out of the mouth of Kyouichi Saionji, she laughed - not a
scornful laugh, but one of pure is-this-a-world-or-what merriment.
Then she touched his shoulders again, this time gripping the material
of his sweater and almost dragging him to his feet. He still wouldn't
look at her, so she had to put a hand under his chin and all but force
his head up (which was amusing, given how much taller than she he
was).
"Kyouichi," she said sharply, "-stop that-. I won't have you
heaping hot coals on your own head over this for the rest of your
days. It's behind us now. All of it. The future stretches before us
like an unknown road, and we're all along for the journey." She
smiled slightly. "If you want to come along as well, that wouldn't be
a problem for me." She shook her head, chuckling. "Oh dear... I seem
to be spending this whole morning forgiving people."
Saionji cracked a weak little smile. "I just... wanted to
make plain the depth of my remorse," he said.
Anthy nodded. "All right, fine. You've done that. Oh,
listen to me... Kyouichi, I don't want to seem callous, but please,
just leave it. The past is the past. The Tournament was a bad time
for all of us. Those of us who survived should draw new strength from
the memory of it, and let it go at that." She patted his shoulder
gently. "Utena has told me of your times together in her new world.
Even if you hadn't come and provided me with one point of light during
my final imprisonment, that -she- has learned to trust and respect you
is all the proof I need that you've changed for the better."
The green-haired Duelist's smile was a little stronger now.
"Thank you," he said softly, bowing his head. There was a pause; then
he said quickly, "I'd like to offer one last proof of my goodwill, if
I may have the honor."
Anthy looked at him inquisitively. "What honor?"
He smiled, his violet eyes gleaming, and began to explain the
favor he craved.
A whirlwind of an early afternoon later, Utena stood with the
Rune Knights (Umi with Nall perched proudly on her shoulder, his white
fur scrubbed clean and brushed sleek) and Anthy near the front of the
Great Hall of Asgard itself, all five trying to contain their awe.
Assembled before them, along the walls and on the great benches of the
Hall, was the high council of the gods, the greatest of the Aesir and
Vanir, dressed in their finest ceremonial clothes: Tyr Grimjaws,
leader of the armies of Asgard; Heimdall Farseeker, air commander and
watchman; Njord Seafarer, commander of the navies of the gods; Frey
and Freyja Lightwalker, the golden twins, responsible for the safety of
the Golden City and its people; Brunnhilde Silverspear, field
commander of the Valkyrie, present because their captain, Skuld
Ravenhair, wasn't qualified to sit on this particular panel; Thor
Ironhammer, mightiest of the gods in battle; Urthr Snowmane, Norn of
the Past, goddess of Love and of Memory. In the center sat the leader
of the gods himself, the All-Father, Odin Winterbeard.
The Knights, Utena and Anthy would have had to admit that they
were feeling a bit underdressed. They weren't, with the Knights in
their full-dress battle garb, Utena again resplendent in her white and
black and crimson with the Thorn of the Rose at her side, and Anthy
in her scarlet Rose Bride's gown, her hair back up in its accustomed
style out of sheer force of habit; but the pageantry of the gods
beggared description. Even Thor had dolled himself up, with his rusty
hair and beard in plaits and his hammer polished to a brilliant shine.
Behind, facing this august assemblage, were the rest of the
gods and prominent citizens of the Golden City, also arrayed in their
finest. Front and center, in the first row, were Corwin's mother,
Skuld, and her elder sister Verthandi. Belldandy was dabbing at her
eyes repeatedly with a handkerchief; Skuld was radiant with pride,
looking as if she might burst with the sheer weight of it.
Behind them stood Skuld's special troops, the Valkyrior,
immaculate and dazzling in their black and silver finery, which looked
rather similar, to Utena's eye, to the armor Corwin wore as Rune
Knight of Iron. Their ranks included the three mortal Valkyrie as
well - Kei Morgan, Yuri Daniels, and Alita Ironheart, all close to
Corwin's father. Here too were delegations from the other Celestial
Worlds - the elven, dwarven and Draconian ambassadors from Alfheim
(the last in human form to avoid crowding the room too much), and
Belfar Nijgaard, the towering consul from the Giantish Kingdom of
Jotunheim.
On the other side of the aisle, Corwin's mortal family and
friends were gathered: his father Gryphon and all his and Kei Morgan's
children, Corwin's half-brothers and -sisters; Kaitlyn's Institute
Duelists' Society and Musicians' Federation ("Band Geeks" having been
determined by a recent vote to be too "informal" for the self-
consciously informal group) in their finest, brightest formalwear;
Sylvie Daniels, MegaZone and Yuri's daughter, and her father; Sylvie's
half-sister, Afura Mann, and -her- father, Lawrence "R-Type" Mann,
flanked by his two GENOM Red Legion bodyguards in their razor-sharp
scarlet dress uniforms; the few schoolmates from Koopman High who knew
(and believed) his divine heritage; the Princess Achika Shannon of
Jyurai and her twin brother, the Prince Tenchi; the three Utonium
sisters, Blossom, Theresa, and Theodora; Corwin's homeroom teacher,
Mr. Masamichi Fujisawa, and Principal Strickland from Fritz Koopman
Memorial High; Belldandy's husband Keiichi Morisato and their four
children, Corwin's cousins, plus their foster daughter, Mary
Broadbank.
There were many others as well, well-wishers and friends of
the family, gathered in this place at blinding speed by Bell and the
group of Valkyrie placed temporarily under her supervision. Here too
were Master Mage Clef and Master Smith Presea, expressly invited as
honored guests of their Pillar. As she noted their presence, Utena
wondered with a wry mental grin if Balder Goldenlight were going out
of his way to stand near them and talk to them specifically to raise
poor Frey's blood pressure. It really wasn't very nice of him, if
that were the case; who knew the Sun God had a dark side?
Grizzled Odin Winterbeard, All-Father, leader of all the
gods, rose to his feet. Just as he did so, the doors at the back of
the room opened again, and Odin paused, one eyebrow rising. A great
number of people turned to see just who would make so bold as to barge
late into an Aesir Council public function.
That person was a golden-tanned, slim and wiry young woman
with a shaggy thatch of ketchup-red hair. She wore what appeared to
be a military dress uniform in green, black and gold, with a fruit
salad of ribbons adorning the slope of her left breast and four heavy
gold braids, one of them interrupted into dashes, around the cuffs of
her sleeves. Green data goggles were pushed up onto her forehead,
revealing laughing gold eyes that went well with the grin on her
pleasant, open face.
Trotting at her side was what appeared to be a Welsh corgi
dressed in a similar uniform. It appeared the redhead outranked the
corgi, since his jacket sleeves had only three braid loops. Behind
them both came another woman, this one older and more substantial,
although the armored field uniform she wore meant that some of that
substance was illusory. She had dark hair and a rather severe
expression, and everyone there with any knowledge of such things
immediately pegged her as the redhead's bodyguard. Or perhaps the
corgi's.
Odin nodded to the late arrivals with a small smile, then
stepped to the small podium built into the center of the council's
gathering table. Instantly, the gathered audience fell silent.
"Citizens of the Golden City, Aesir, Vanir, honored guests,"
said Odin. "The Council of Asgard meets today to judge the petition
of Corwin Ravenhair, son of Skuld Ravenhair of Asgard and Gryphon, the
Midgard-Knight, for elevation to godhood and installation amid the
pantheon of the Aesir. Is the petitioner present?"
Corwin, on cue, emerged from the traditional side door,
wearing his full Rune Knight's armor, Stick as ever in his hand.
Those who hadn't seen it since before Corwin left on his quest
murmured in surprise, for the events of the Trial had changed the
young god's Draconic warstaff. Where before it had been of blond
wood, its runic Valkyrie inscription carved in black, the staff now
gleamed as dark as night, its runes the red of blood.
The freshly expanded brand on Corwin's forehead gleamed softly
in the torchlight of the Hall. With measured tread and a seemly
combination of confidence and humility, he strode to the center,
performed a smart left-face, and reverenced the All-Father on one
knee.
"All-Father, I am here," he said, head bowed.
"Corwin Ravenhair, you were charged as your Trial with the
investigation of the crisis situation in the border world of Cephiro.
Have you come before us today to report success?"
"All-Father, I have," Corwin replied.
"Speak, then," said Odin. "How fares the Tenth World?"
"All-Father," said Corwin, still not looking up but with
undampened pride in his voice, "the evil which threatened Cephiro is
no more. With the aid of my good friend Nall Silverclaw, White Dragon
of Alfheim, and the Rune Knights of Cephirean prophecy, I was able to
halt the decay and stabilize the Tenth World. It is in no further
danger."
Odin, of course, knew all this; the call to account was a mere
formality. Corwin had already reported in full to the council behind
closed doors the previous night, and his apotheosis had already
happened, in the Pillar Circle. The outcome of this ceremony was a
foregone conclusion. Still, it pleased the old god that his grandson
was still sharing the credit for his accomplishment before the full
audience here convened. Such humility would serve him well in life.
"I have seen, with the wisdom of Mimir for which I gave my
eye," said Odin formally (though he'd really heard it from Corwin the
previous night), "that you yourself have -become- one of the Rune
Knights of prophecy, and the Pillar of the Tenth World into the
bargain. Was this well done, to take action where your mission was
only to gather information and report? To take such power and
responsibility onto yourself without first consulting this Council, to
use the ancient Arts in battle, and you not yet a fully-fledged god?"
"All-Father, it was," Corwin replied unhesitatingly. "Had I
not acted, the responsibilities of the Pillar would have been cruelly
forced upon an innocent, a woman unprepared for and undeserving of the
rigors of the position, and in the process two lives would have been
destroyed and Cephiro itself plunged into chaos and tyranny. My
conscience could not permit such a thing to happen. Only one course
of action was open to me. If in so acting I have offended this august
Council, then so be it. I stand ready to suffer any punishment the
Council sees fit to mete out. I know in my heart that my actions were
right."
Odin received this last bit with a cocked eyebrow, then a
small smile. Behind him, he could sense Frey Lightwalker fidgeting
slightly, well aware that the barb was for him.
"Rise, Corwin Ravenhair," said Odin, and Corwin straightened,
rising up and tilting his head back to look his grandfather square in
the face. "It is the judgment of this Council that you have not only
acted rightly, not only succeeded, but excelled in all respects. The
difficulty and danger of the situation into which you found yourself
thrust far exceeded this Council's anticipation, and for that, it is
we who owe you an apology. Does the Council concur with my decision?"
Tyr nodded gravely. "Aye."
Heimdall smiled. "Aye."
"Aye," said Njord, calm and unruffled, as always.
"Aye," concurred the Lightwalkers in quiet unison.
Brunnhilde Silverspear glanced at Skuld with a twinkle in her
azure eyes and nodded. "Aye."
Urd leaned back in her chair and deliberately made her tone of
voice as sultry as possible as she winked at her nephew - only
slightly disappointed, and at the same time pleased, that he was too
focused on the occasion to blush - and said, "Aye."
"AYE!" Thor bellowed, banging a massive fist down on the heavy
oak table.
Odin smiled. "Corwin Ravenhair, you have made all Asgard
proud." The Council rose to their feet behind the All-Father to
accord their petitioner the honor he deserved as Odin went on, "It is
my honor and privilege to accord unto you the grade of Divinity First
Class, Category Two, Unlimited. According to your strongest
qualifications, your position in the pantheon shall be as the patron
spirit of Mecha, and your commitment to justice, honor and love will
be noted in your record in the Hall of Immortals."
Applause erupted, along with cheers, whistles and hoots.
Hikaru Shidou abandoned dignity altogether and jumped up and down,
alternately waving furiously and sticking her little fingers into the
corners of her mouth to produce deafening whistles. Fuu Hououji
applauded politely, her face wreathed in smiles. Uum'y R'yuu-z'ky,
who would normally have been stiff with disapproval at the sort of
show Hikaru was putting on, only laughed and clapped her hands as Nall
sat up on her shoulder and hooted. Corwin's half-siblings, cousins,
friends and schoolmates cheered.
The warrior women of the Valkyrior, who had all known and
doted on Corwin since his infancy, danced and slammed high-fives, then
(along with Brunnhilde up on the platform) broke into the Valkyrie
Battle Hymn. ("Warrior maids, riding on High / Striking beautiful
terror into the hearts of Asgard's foes... ") Skuld sang with them,
her face glowing with pride. Urd grinned and whistled almost as loud
as Hikaru, but she was nearly drowned out by Thor's thunderous
applause. Belldandy cried. Gryphon applauded, then folded his arms
and grinned across at Skuld.
Utena, feeling her eyes tearing up, glanced at Anthy and saw
that she looked just the same. The two women smiled at each other,
gently squeezing the hands clasped between them, and said nothing -
not that they could have heard each other in the din of the Great Hall
anyway.
Odin raised a hand for silence, got it after a moment, and
turned to his grandson again. "Now, Corwin Ravenhair, there is but
one last piece of business to attend to. Having passed your Trial
with such facility, you are now too powerful to walk in the world of
men. Your strides would shake Midgard, your slightest lapse in
judgment threaten the balance. Your strength must be contained, lest
it force you to give up your accustomed life."
Corwin nodded. "All-Father, I understand," he said.
Odin turned to the assembly. "Utena Tenjou, Anthy Himemiya -
step forward."
Utena and Anthy glanced at each other, surprised. What did
the Almighty want with them? Hesitantly, they did as they were bade,
advancing up onto the dais itself to face the one-eyed father of the
gods.
"You are the Prince and the Priestess of the Tenth World,"
said Odin to the two women. "With the Pillar you form that world's
Trinity - the embodiment of all Cephiro's courage, light and strength.
It is for you, therefore, to set the seal on your compatriot's power."
Utena blinked and glanced at Anthy, completely at a loss; she
knew about Asgardian power seals, she'd had one herself for over a
year, but how was she supposed to -set- one on someone -else-? Anthy
didn't seem worried, though; she only smiled serenely and nodded.
"All-Father," she replied softly, "I understand."
"-I- don't," Utena said.
Odin smiled. "You will," he said, and stepped back.
"Don't worry, Sir Corwin," said Anthy gently. "This won't
hurt."
He nodded, closing his eyes. Anthy, facing Corwin on his
left, raised her left hand and placed it on his shoulder. She looked
an instruction to Utena, who, comprehending, did the same with her
right hand on his right. For a moment, Anthy closed her eyes,
concentrating, and Utena's eyes widened as she saw the brands on the
Priestess's forehead and on Corwin's pulse in time. Then Anthy's eyes
opened and she spoke:
>Pillar of the Tenth World,
Hear the voice of your Priestess.
Let the fire of your heart be banked,
To warm the things you love
Without threatening to scorch them.<
Utena blinked again as more of those ancient words came
unbidden to her mind, and she added to Anthy's cant:
>Pillar of the Tenth World,
Hear the voice of your Prince.
Let the strength of your arm be bound,
To support the things you love
Without threatening to shatter them.<
Light surrounded them, and Corwin sank slowly to his knees,
laying Stick sideways at the two women's feet. His brand glowed,
quivered, and then, with a high-pitched falling tone, shrank and
simplified back to its original center-dotted circle shape. On his
left ear, a gleaming metal cuff appeared, simple silver with an
engraved runic pattern. The bubble of light that surrounded the three
of them popped with a sound like water plopping into a pool, showering
the Council with ephemeral sparks.
Corwin looked up at Utena and Anthy with a calm smile, and
they took hold of his hands and levered him to his feet. Anthy knelt
and rose again with Stick in her hands. Corwin took it from her with
thanks and a grin.
"It is done," said Odin with satisfaction. Gently turning
Corwin by his shoulder to face the assembled audience, the All-Father
spread his arms wide and boomed, "Ladies, gentlemen, I give you Corwin
Ravenhair of the Aesir: Rune Knight of Iron, Watcher O'er the
World-Engine, Chooser of the Slain, Pillar of the Tenth World, and
Lord of the Great Machines!"
Once again the Hall filled with applause and cheering. The
Valkyrior broke into "We Are the Champions". Corwin stood beaming on
the dais with Utena on his right and Anthy on his left and grinned
first at one, then the other. Anthy, he noticed, was really very
pretty when she smiled. Again he had the feeling that she looked
oddly familiar to him - well, she slightly resembled her brother, whom
he'd met once, but only slightly... there was something else... but he
couldn't put his finger on it, so he just smiled at her again and let
it go. There was, after all, much to be done yet today, and he had no
time for woolgathering now.
Tradition dictated that those closest to the Invested - his
family, closest friends, and personal guests - would then adjourn to
one of the lesser halls for a celebratory feast. Today, though,
events were taking a slightly different, special course, and so, while
the Council and most of the other gods and Asgardians went to the
Great Hall of Odin's palace to prepare that feast, the core of the
investiture ceremony moved instead down the Great Boulevard. Several
of them slipped away, disappearing into side streets, as the cortege
moved along. The rest entered a great golden building standing at the
end of the Boulevard opposite the palace of Odin, where the
Investiture had been held.
Here, they joined another group of people who had nothing to
do with the Investiture, but knew many of those who had. These people
had been painstakingly sought out and assembled here by Belldandy and
Urd, not told precisely where they were going (for there aren't that
many mortal minds that can absorb such a datum cold) or why, but
promised that they would understand the latter, at least, by day's
end. They had come from Midgard and from Cephiro, and had been
assembled on opposite sides of the great aisle inside. When she
arrived, Belldandy was pleased to see that, while they were waiting,
the groups had mingled, talking amongst themselves, speculating about
why they were here and finding their common grounds.
Mainly, the ones who were waiting were puzzled by the sort of
room they found themselves in. It was a huge, vault-ceilinged room with
two rows of heavy wooden benches flanking a broad, scarlet-carpeted
aisle which led a hundred feet to a cross-aisle, slightly narrower.
Beyond this were three steps, which in turn led up to a ten-foot-square
dais upon which was what looked rather like an altar. The room
broadened slightly at that point, and three steps further up from the
altar dais, surrounding it and divided from it and the rest of the room
by a polished wood rail, was an enclosed space with a large number of
chairs in it.
It looked rather like a combination of a church and a theater,
and none of those assembled could even guess what purpose they might
have been gathered in it for. Their speculation quieted momentarily
when the group from the Investiture arrived, but their puzzlement was
only deepened.
In one corner of this room, several members of the DSM
Institute Duelists' Society stood gathered around the redheaded girl
in the green and black dress uniform, excitedly questioning her.
"Where have you -been-?" asked T'skaia Vorokoshiga'ar
Ixtixtaaqitl't'chl'Vraihelt Ishkarat, the Society's Barsaivian
t'skrang member. Like most of the Duelists he had been acquainted
with her back at the Worcester Preparatory Institute, where she had
not been a student, but had been something of a fixture.
The redhead grinned, came to attention, and saluted smartly.
"Vice Admiral Edward Wong Hau Pepelu Tivrusky the Fourth has been
helping to build the glorious legend of the Imperial Navy of the
Republic of Lh'owon and the Outer S'pht Protectorates!" she declared.
Those who had known Edward at WPI, a year before, remarked on
the changes in her. Not only was she dressed considerably more
formally than they remembered - she had on shoes! - she had grown up
considerably as well, changing from a spindly kid who was sometimes
mistaken for a boy into a girl a person would have to be blind not to
recognize as one. Her voice had changed, too, from a rather grating
squeak to a honey-smooth contralto.
"You're an -admiral-?!" B'Elanna Torres blurted skeptically.
B'Elanna hadn't met Edward before; she'd joined the group on Jeraddo,
after Edward had disappeared, along with her constant companion Ein
the corgi and a duffel bag full of old AI parts named Durandal, onto
the Outer Rim following the dissolution of WPI by the Psi Corps.
Edward grinned. "Rear Admiral Ein and I are the only
officers," she remarked. "So we can have pretty much any ranks we
want. Sometimes I'm a sublieutenant. Today I'm an admiral."
"I notice you're not talking about yourself in the third
person any longer," Mia Ausa pointed out with a smile.
"Edward refers to Edward in whatever way strikes Edward's
fancy," replied Edward piously. "Edward is a free person."
"Who was that woman who came in with you?" asked T'skaia.
"Oh, that was the Major. Our chief of security." Edward
blinked, then looked around as if she'd just realized that the Major
wasn't with them any more. "Isn't she here?"
Ein barked.
"Oh," said Edward. "I see. Ein says she beamed back to the
ship while Edward wasn't paying attention. Probably Durandal's
sending her on another errand. He likes to do that."
"Ah," said B'Elanna. "And 'Durandal' is... ?"
"Our computer. Or he thinks we're his people, actually. It's
all in your perspective... "
In an anteroom of this vast chamber, Kyouichi Saionji stood
and tried not to look nervous while Wakaba Shinohara fussed with his
uniform. It was brand new, made hurriedly but quite competently to
her order by Garak, Babylon 5's intrepid tailor, before Wakaba had
hurried with her Valkyrie escort to Asgard for the ceremony. She was
relieved to see that it fit as perfectly as if Saionji had been
present for Garak to fit him. But then, that kind of skill was why
Garak could afford to charge the rates he did.
"Hold -still-, dammit," Wakaba groused as Saionji fidgeted.
"How am I supposed to get your braid straight if you keep moving
around?"
"I'm going to have to move eventually anyway, Shinohara," he
pointed out. "I can't stand in -here- all day."
"You know what I mean," said Wakaba. She turned him
around facing the full-length mirror on the wall, mounted the little
stepstool behind him, and started adjusting his collar. "You're just
lucky that Corwin's aunt was nice enough to give you the full
treatment. You'd look pretty funny hobbling out there with a cane
like an old man."
"Hilarious," Saionji replied dryly.
"All right, there," she said, stepping down and turning him
around again. "Mm-mm! Delicious, as always. Of course, I'm biased
by my strange fondness for the brooding, moody type."
Saionji cracked a little smile. "Thanks," he said.
The door off to the side opened and Kaitlyn came in with Serge
padding along nonchalantly behind her, as if he attended ceremonies in
the home of the gods every day of the week. Kate was wearing her new
Satori Mandeville Memorial band uniform. This had been procured on
-slightly- less short notice, since they'd already been planned for
the DSM Student Orchestra's first spring concert the following month.
Designed by Kate and Wakaba to make a contrast with the more
traditional suit-like DSM student uniforms, this had been developed
with both the Valkyrie dress uniform and that of Ohtori Academy in
mind.
Well, no, Saionji corrected himself. Mustn't call it Ohtori
Academy any more. The revolution of the world had seen to that.
Saionji had arrived at his old school, fetched from Tenchuu by Master
Mage Clef after being alerted via telegram by Shiori Takatsuki that
the Grand Tournament was at last over, to find the name on the
wrought-iron gate changed.
It amused Saionji considerably to know that the School at the
Center of the World, where the elite of Cephiro had been taught and
the great defenders of the realm had been tempered in the Arena in the
Sky for generations, would now and probably forever bear the name of
his dear friend and once-hated rival Utena Tenjou. (Not least, he
reflected with a quiet smile, because Utena herself had found the
change so charmingly disconcerting.)
At any rate, the DSM band uniform's jacket was similar to
Wakaba's Student Councilor's garb, though with silver buttons and
edging instead of gold and scarlet and sporting black-chevroned silver
shoulder boards instead of brass epaulets. The trousers were white
with a pair of black stripes down the outseams. They gave the
orchestra a very distinctive, very slick and professional, if slightly
martial, look, and Kate was well pleased with them.
Kaitlyn grinned broadly at the sight of her dress-uniformed
student, and he noticed with a slightly startled expression that the
bandleader was wearing a sword at her side. He hadn't expected that;
Kate didn't usually carry a sword openly, though she was a master (his
master, in fact) of the Asagiri Katsujinkenryuu kenjutsu form. On the
other hand, he'd had her usual blade, a zatoichi named Kotetsu no
Sasayaki, with him in Cephiro for the last couple of weeks, so he
supposed she would have to have found a blade -somewhere-. A samurai
mustn't go unarmed, after all.
Which reminded Saionji that he had an obligation to discharge;
he turned, went to the nearby table, and collected the zatoichi, then
presented it with a deep bow to his teacher.
"Thank you for the loan of your blade, Kaitlyn-sensei," he
said formally. "I regret that, thanks to my clumsiness, it was
damaged, but Master Smith Presea was kind enough to put it right for
me this morning."
Kaitlyn smiled, but made no move to take the sword from him.
Then she adopted the rather severe, certainly serious expression
Saionji had come to think of as her "dojo face" and said, matching his
formal tone, "K-Kyouichi Saionj-j-ji, Novice of the Asag-giri
K-K-Katsuj-jinkenryuu."
"Yes, Kaitlyn-sensei."
"It has b-been rep-p-ported to m-me that, t-two days ag-go,
you p-p-performed the Hyakk-ken no A-Arashi technique in m-mortal
b-b-battle against a w-worthy foe. Is th-this true?"
"Sensei, it is. It was in that battle that your blade was
broken."
Kaitlyn nodded, then fixed his eyes with hers. "Before you
d-disap-p-peared, I had th-thought to t-test you for adv-vancement to
the r-rank of Journeym-man within the m-month," she said. "This
rep-port makes that act n-no longer n-n-necessary."
Saionji blinked at her, not sure which way to take that; then
she showed him by grinning and dropping her formal pretense to take
the offered sword, stand it against the wall next to her, and actually
-hug- him, a thing that, so far as he could remember, she had never
done before.
"C-Congratul-lations, J-Journeyman Saionji," she said when she
released him. Then she removed the katana from her belt and presented
it to him. "I kn-know you h-h-have a sword alr-ready, but it's
t-t-traditional for Journeymen," she said.
Slowly, he took the blade, unsheathed it, and examined it;
then he weighed it in his hand, tucked the saya into his belt in the
prescribed fashion, and smartly sheathed the sword within it before
bowing to his teacher again.
"Thank you, Sensei," he said. "I will strive to be worthy of
it."
"You're already worthy of it, you big goof, or she wouldn't
have given it to you," said Wakaba, clouting him on the shoulder.
"The trick now is to be worthy of the -next- part - right, Kate?"
Kaitlyn grinned. "Right," she said. "L-listen, I've g-got to
go get the k-kids set up. I j-just wanted to g-get that done bef-fore
we're all b-b-busy for the r-rest of the day." Her grin became a
prouder, fonder smile, and she added in a quieter tone, "I'm very
p-proud of you, K-Kyouichi-k-kun. Good w-work."
"Thank you," said Saionji. Kate patted him on the arm,
collected her zatoichi, and left the room, Serge in tow, with a final
grin over her shoulder for the both of them.
"Journeyman Saionji," said Wakaba thoughtfully; then she stood
on tiptoe and kissed him. "I like that," she said. "Now get over to
the other side before I forget about our obligations and mess up your
nice neat uniform."
Saionji smiled and gave her a mock bow before departing.
The buzz of curious conversation in the main hall deepened as
a side door in the broad end of the room opened and an orchestra began
setting up in the rail-ringed enclosure. They were young, all of
them, and mostly human and near-human, with a few more radically
non-human species here and there; obviously they were a primarily
Earth-style orchestra. They wore uniforms, black and silver, cavalry-
jacketed and silver-braided, and they went about the business of
setting up and tuning with a workmanlike competence and calm far
beyond their years.
Their leader seemed to be a girl of sixteen or seventeen, a
pleasant-faced and trim young lady with big round glasses, her
slightly curly brown hair cascading free over the silver-boarded
shoulders of her uniform jacket. She had no instrument, but carried a
black walking stick in one hand and a short white baton in the other,
and the others looked to her for direction as the orchestra prepared
itself. She was followed closely by what appeared to be a smallish
tiger, which took up a position near the podium and settled in for a
nap as she took charge of things.
Some of those who were waiting recognized these youngsters,
and the murmurs rose again as they conveyed the information to those
who did not that this was the Deedlit Satori Mandeville Memorial
Institute's student orchestra, renowned throughout the galaxy as one
of the finest pre-collegiate student bands in known space. The girl
with the black stick and the tiger was their student director, Kaitlyn
Hutchins, a genuine prodigy and one of the best-regarded young
musicians in the galaxy.
They were here for a -band concert-?
"Ooooh," said Edward, delighted. "Kate got a -tiger-."
In an anteroom, Belldandy finished brushing Anthy Himemiya's
hair, adjusted her golden tiara, stepped back, and nodded with
satisfaction.
"There," she said. "You look so much... freer, now," the Norn
observed. "Not so severe."
Anthy stood up from the dressing room chair and bowed. "Thank
you, Mrs. Morisato," she said.
"Oh, please, call me Bell," said Belldandy. "Are you certain
you're ready? If you'll forgive me for saying so, red is an, er,
unusual color to wear for this sort of thing."
Anthy cast her eyes uncomfortably down, her cheeks darkening,
and said softly, "I'm... not really qualified for the... the usual
color."
Belldandy's face, always concerned-looking, took on an air of
calm, rather indulgent certitude. She took the girl's shoulders in
her hands and said, "Anthy, besides being the Norn of Today, I'm the
goddess of Fidelity. I know the truth of a lover's heart. Was it a
thing you wanted to do?"
Anthy looked up at the goddess, her eyes full of unshed tears,
and said in a voice barely above a whisper, "No."
Belldandy smiled, kissed her forehead, and suddenly the room
was filled with light. When it abated, Anthy's gown had changed.
"Then," said Belldandy firmly, "you wear this."
Anthy looked down at herself, then back to the Norn's smiling
face, and whispered, almost inaudibly, "Thank you."
"You're welcome, child," said Belldandy. Then, tsking, she
fetched a kerchief out of somewhere in her ceremonial robes, dabbed at
Anthy's eyes, and made a few more small adjustments. "Now. Ready?
No more time for sorrow. Life isn't constant, perfect joy, it's true,
but the kind of sorrow you've borne all your life is over now. When
my nephew pushed you from the Circle, you were reborn, in a way... and
now it's time to start enjoying your new life."
Anthy smiled brightly. "I'm ready," she said.
Belldandy beamed. "Well, then, I'll just go and round up your
escort, and then we'll get started."
Those who had come from the Great Hall filtered in through
side doors, found acquaintances among the crowd already waiting, and
the talk commenced anew. What could they be here for? Corwin had
asked them to come, and as his guests, they could hardly refuse, but
what was the purpose? It was terribly mysterious, and made all the
more so by those who knew what city they were in having been sworn to
silence on the subject.
Belldandy slipped out of one of these doors, worked her way
into the crowd, and eventually found herself in a corner with her
sisters.
"Everything ready on your end?" asked Urd.
"Perfectly," Belldandy replied. "Yours?"
"A-OK," said Urd. "The kid shines up like a new penny. And
that hair! What I wouldn't give... "
"Skuld?" asked Belldandy.
Skuld grinned and gave her sister a thumbs-up. "Spectrum Is
Green, sis. This show is good to go."
Belldandy smiled. "Oh, thank Heaven," she said, entirely
unaware that she was making a joke. Then, becoming serious, she said,
"Should we do an augury for them?"
Skuld grinned. "I'm game."
Urd glanced at her watch. "Sure," she said. "I've got time
if we're quick." She held out her hand; Belldandy took it, and then
Skuld took both of theirs, and all three sisters closed their eyes in
silence.
Half a minute later, they all opened them simultaneously,
looked at each other, smiled, nodded, and dispersed without a word,
Bell and Skuld into the audience, Urd quickly and silently back
through the main doors and out of the hall.
At a subtle signal from Skuld, the orchestra seemed to settle.
Its members stopped tuning, only sitting and looking attentively at
the center podium. Their leader - Kaitlyn Hutchins - laid her walking
stick down at her feet, tapped her baton against the podium, and
raised her hand, palm outward, for quiet. The audience quieted,
perhaps expecting her to say something, but she merely smiled at them,
turned her back, and raised the baton.
The orchestra's brass section lifted itself in a triumphal
fanfare, ushered along by the booming of great kettle drums, and
behind the assembled guests, the tall twin main doors burst open.
As the orchestra settled from the fanfare into a processional
march, down the center aisle came Corwin Ravenhair, his armor replaced
by elaborate black and silver ceremonial robes. The ferrule of his
staff tapped against the floor with each measured stride, and without
hesitation, he walked to the steps, mounted them, and with a brisk
about-face, squared himself before the altar.
Behind them came two rows of four people each, marching in
parallel lines down the aisle. On the left side, Wakaba Shinohara led
two of her former Ohtori Academy schoolmates, Miki Kaoru and Juri
Arisugawa, and one dress-uniformed Valkyrie, the orange-maned and
grinning Vigdis Brightblade. On the right, a silver-and-scarlet-robed
Urd Snowmane led the Rune Knights of the Flame, the Sea and the Storm,
still in their grandest ceremonial finery; make that line five people,
with Nall still standing his tallest and proudest on Uum'y R'yuu-z'ky's
shoulder.
These two rows reached the cross-aisle just before the steps
to the altar, then stopped just before it, pivoted smartly to face
each other, and stood at attention.
With perfect timing, the orchestra finished its march,
gathered itself, and kicked back into fanfare, the horn line soaring
to heroic heights as the tall golden door to the left slammed back.
Somehow, it seemed as if Utena Tenjou's white uniform had
gotten even whiter, the golden braid and buttons even brighter, her
vivid pink hair even glossier, since Corwin's Investiture just an hour
ago. A white rose stood proud in her breast pocket. With a precise
step, chin held high, eyes shining, she came down the cross-aisle, the
rigging of the Thorn of the Rose chinking softly at her left hip with
every other step. (When she'd manifested the uniform she'd wondered
about that; the scabbard frog was on the wrong side for her. A
lingering echo of Dios, perhaps? If so, she decided it was worth the
minor inconvenience. She was more or less ambidextrous in combat
anyway.)
When Utena drew even with the altar, just past the line of her
Ohtori classmates and Vee, she stopped.
The Mandeville Memorial Student Orchestra finished the fanfare
just as she stopped, and immediately changed their tune, flowing
smoothly into a sweeping, strings-rich piece that effortlessly
exchanged the stirring, somewhat martial tones of the marches and
fanfares for a sweet, bright, and lovely melody that put one in mind
of flowers and sunlight.
Kaitlyn, with Miki Kaoru's able assistance, had been composing
and re-composing the music for this occasion for the past fourteen
months; her orchestra - for, school name or no, faculty advisor or no,
it belonged to her in heart and spirit - had been rehearsing it for
the past six. Though they knew it only as "Special Project 1" - their
sheet music didn't even have the names of the pieces on it, for
security's sake - the orchestra had rehearsed hard anyway, sensing
that this project was -very- special to their leader. Their efforts
showed their worth as the door opposite the one that had admitted
Utena opened and two figures emerged.
This part of the proceedings had caused a bit of consternation
for the occasion's planners. Anthy Himemiya had no living family, and
all her relatively few friends were already accounted for elsewhere in
the party. Who, then, would serve as her maid of honor, who her half
of the honor guard, and who her escort?
Urd had volunteered for the first role after a short, private
conversation with the Rose Bride, from which both had emerged smiling
enigmatically. The second had been solved when the Rune Knights, led
by Hikaru, had graciously, well, -insisted- on serving as their High
Priestess's guard of honor. The final task, after considerable
headscratching by Belldandy and the rest, had been taken out of their
hands and solved in a quite unexpected fashion.
When Anthy emerged from the anteroom, it was on the arm of a
fully recovered, immaculately scrubbed, combed, and uniformed, tall-
standing, proud-faced Kyouichi Saionji. But, healthy, immaculate,
tall, or not, today Saionji was completely overshadowed by the
delicate creature on his arm.
Anthy's familiar gown, scarlet throughout the contest and at
Corwin's Investiture, now blazed like Utena's princely uniform in
dazzling white, edged in scarlet and gold, an improbable but lovely
purple rose in her top pocket. Belldandy had let the Rose Bride's
deep violet hair down and done something to it that emphasized its
slight natural wave. With that change and the removal of her
eyeglasses, the strength of character in her dusky face, usually so
well-hidden, jumped vividly out at all observers. Wearing a beatific
smile, she accompanied Saionji to a position opposite Utena, barely
out of arm's reach of her.
With a courtly bow and a rather conspiratorial little smile
for Utena, Saionji released Anthy's arm and presented her to the
white-clad prince who awaited her; then he stepped back, turned
smartly on his heel, and went to his place in the front row of the
gallery.
Utena and Anthy smiled at each other, then turned as one to
face Corwin, and the music swelled to a crescendo so sweet it nearly
masked its own underlying strength before stepping tidily aside and
permitting silence into the chapel. Behind them, the guard of honor
likewise pivoted to face the altar, the tightly restrained smiles on
their faces threatening to escape all control.
Corwin smiled, cleared his throat, and said rather hoarsely,
"My friends... we are gathered today to witness at last the end of a
long, painful, and difficult courtship.
"Utena Tenjou and Anthy Himemiya were strangers when
circumstances beyond their control threw them together. Caught up in
rapidly shifting events, manipulated by forces hidden in shadows and
myths, they surprised themselves as much as anyone else by discovering
the love they came to share. But the unexpected things in our lives
are sometimes the best and brightest and strongest things we will ever
have... and so it is with this.
"They have been tried. They have been tested. They have been
tormented. They have been torn apart and taunted by fate. And yet,
here they stand, shoulder to shoulder, in the Hall of the Valkyrior,
before this, the holiest of altars."
Corwin smiled. "For this love, a world has been swept by
revolution, and the balance of the whole of Creation forever altered.
Anything I could go on to say about the power and permanence of love
would pale by comparison to the silent testimony of the deeds these
two have committed in its name; and so this will be a short ceremony,
as this sort of thing goes."
He paused as though turning a mental page, then went on,
"Utena Tenjou, Rune Knight of the Rose, Grand Duelist of Tenjou
Academy, Prince of the Tenth World: Do you take this woman, Anthy
Himemiya, to be your wife? Do you swear this oath above all other
oaths, to love, respect, and aid her in all things, to support her,
guide her, defend her, and never to forsake her?"
Utena glanced smiling at Anthy, then looked Corwin in the eye,
nodded firmly, and replied in a strong, clear voice, "I do."
Corwin gave her a quick, rather conspiratorial smile, and then
turned to Anthy. "Anthy Himemiya, Bride of the Rose, Witch of Cephiro,
High Priestess of the Tenth World: Do you take this woman, Utena
Tenjou, to be your husband? Do you swear this oath above all other
oaths, to love, respect and aid her in all things, to support her,
guide her, defend her, and never to forsake her?"
Anthy smiled and replied, calm and clear, "I do."
"Then by the power embodied in me as the Pillar of the Tenth
World," said Corwin, placing a hand on each of their shoulders, "I
pronounce you husband and wife."
Utena and Anthy turned to face each other, smiling. Slowly,
reverently, each reached up with her left hand and removed the rose
from her pocket; then they linked their arms and put the flowers in
each other's pockets instead, leaned their faces close to each other,
and kissed.
Corwin raised his hands above them and turned his face to the
light pouring down from the skylights as, above them, the silver bells
of Valhalla began to peal, filling the entire Golden City with their
joyful cry. Below, the orchestra started in on a recessional march
which somehow blended with the bells and the cheering guests rather
than competing with them. Arm in arm, Utena and Anthy Tenjou turned
to face the great doors and the new life that waited beyond them.
Their eight guards of honor (and passenger) turned, reversing
their lines, and preceded the couple to and through the door. Outside,
at the top of the stairs to the street, they stopped, formed ranks
again. One by one they were joined by the present Tenjou Academy
Student Council, the full roster of the Valkyrior, all the Mandeville
Institute Duelists, Kaitlyn's father and her Katsujinkenryuu-novice
brother Leonard.
Once assembled, all these people drew their swords (the
Valkyrie, despite their widely varying battle weapons, all wore dress
sabers) and held them high, tips clashing together, to form an arch
for the Rose Knight and her bride to pass under. Once the couple had
passed, the expanded honor guard held their position until Corwin,
too, had emerged beneath it, the Valkyrie in particular giving their
comrade his due. Then the guards returned their blades to their
places, reversed their lines again, and followed them down to the
sidewalk, with Corwin behind them and then all the assembled company,
still cheering and talking among themselves.
Having played their roles in not one, but two grand ceremonies
for the day, the three Rune Knights paused outside the magnificent
(albeit makeshift, in the loosest sense) cathedral. There they stood,
still armored, in a short row, leaning quietly on a massive stone wall
as they watched people file back out onto the Great Boulevard. Some
members of the crowd waved as they strolled by, and the girls waved
back but remained as they were. Nall had lingered on Uum'y's shoulder
for a few minutes; sensing that the threesome needed some time to
themselves, however, he'd soon excused himself to "go bug Rocket
Godboy for a while."
The Trial of the Rune Gods had taken these girls from their
respective childhoods, from pleasant lives and happy homes, and thrust
them headlong into an early adulthood. They'd been through much, seen
much more, and fought for their young lives in ways they'd never
dreamed they'd need to do. All things considered, they'd borne up
quite well under the stress, learning to rely both on their own
strengths and those of their fellow Knights, and, in the process, grew
into fast and close friends. Uum'y still teased Hikaru about her
overeagerness, and Fuu was always ready with a detailed yet poignant
observation, but the three young women were joined at the heart.
Those young hearts, even now, still ached with the grief of
what they'd been forced to do to the late Pillar of Cephiro, even as
they leapt with joy now that they'd seen it all made right. But
still, the Trial was over, their tasks fulfilled, and their adventure
complete.
As if to illustrate this fact, their armor shimmered and
vanished, leaving them dressed in the same school uniforms they'd
started their odyssey with. The only outward evidence that anything
had happened to them now were the shimmering gems clasped on silver
half-gauntlets to the backs of their left hands.
Hikaru, usually the emotive member of the team, heaved a long
and heavy sigh, as if the disappearance of her weightless magic armor
were the removal of a heavy burden. "Wow," she observed tiredly over
the din of the crowd moving past them.
Umi glanced toward her, then nodded. "Can't argue with
that."
"Indeed," Fuu added.
The three fell into silence once more.
Umi quietly scratched at the sidewalk with the toe of her
boot. "Guess I might make that fencing tournament after all," she
muttered, not really expecting the others to hear.
"I wonder," Fuu nodded, "if we could find someone willing to
take us back to New Avalon. Though a celebration is more than
deserved, I'm quite ready to get back to my home now."
"Yeah," Hikaru sighed. "I miss Hikari." She bit her lip. "I
wish - "
"Excuse me."
The interruption of a new, deeper voice quickly gained the
attention of all three Rune Knights, and as one they looked up at its
source and replied, "Yes?"
The interloper was a tall fellow; he'd've been the tallest any
of them had seen up close, had they not just met Thor Ironhammer, but
this fellow was nowhere near as broad and muscular. His hair was
short and unremarkably brown, and his eyes, quiet hazel, seemed to be
appraising them for a moment. His clothes, classic business-style
attire, seemed curiously out of place amid the modernized anachronisms
of Asgard.
Momentarily, he reached inside his jacket and drew out what
appeared to be a small leather wallet, then regarded each of the girls
in turn.
"Fuu Hououji," he stated, looking the blonde Funkotroni
directly in her emerald eyes.
Fuu nodded. "That is correct."
His gaze shifted one girl to the left. "Hikaru Shidou."
"That's me," Hikaru replied.
He regarded the last in line. "Uum'y R'yuu-z'ky."
Umi blinked -- this was the third person she'd met so far,
along with Fuu and Nall, who pronounced her name correctly. "Uh...
yes, I am."
He nodded with a small smile, and flipped the wallet open with
a well-practiced flick of his wrist. Within was an ID card and a
gleaming golden badge.
"Detective Chief Inspector Martin Rose, Avalon County Criminal
Investigations Division." He flipped the wallet shut again and
slipped it back into his jacket pocket. "Come with me, please."
The Knights looked at each other. Uum'y cocked her ears
quizzically, Hikaru shrugged, and Fuu gave them both a small, quiet
smile.
"All right," Hikaru said. "We're with you."
"Lead the way, Inspector," Fuu urged with that same knowing
smile.
The newcomer led the Rune Knights into one of the larger, more
official-looking buildings on the Great Boulevard, holding the door
for them in what Umi found to be a quaint display of gallantry that
reminded her of Hyeruul. The door clicked shut behind them, cutting
off the din of the migrating crowd as their guide led them deeper
inside.
"Um," Hikaru started to fill the silence as they walked,
"we're not in any trouble or anything, are we?"
The detective chuckled quietly as he turned a corner. "No,
no, not at all. There's no law against being kidnapped. Not in my
jurisdiction, anyway."
Fuu quietly cleaned her glasses as she kept pace. "Still, I'm
certain our disappearance must have caused some amount of consternation."
"That, my dear," the detective replied, "is an understatement.
Three schoolgirls disappearing at the same time would be enough by
itself. Vanishing without so much as a hint of a trace is more
worrisome than you know. Vanishing from the building that happens to
have my -office- in it... well, that just makes it personal."
"So, you were the poor sap assigned to find us, I take it,"
Umi guessed with a wry smile.
"Initially. They tried pulling me off the case when Big Fire
started raising trouble again, but something about this bugged me.
The only real lead I got was when Lady Ravenhair - Corwin's mom, that's
how you'd know her - took an interest in the case as well, and found
the magic portal that took you three to Cephiro."
"Of course," Fuu interjected, "that still gave you no way to
come and retrieve us."
"True enough," Inspector Rose nodded, "nor did it give me
anything to tell your folks. There are limits to the stories even -I-
can tell and still be believed." At this, he stopped, and wrapped his
hand around the doorknob beside him.
Hikaru sighed, her eyes turning dejectedly toward the floor.
"My brothers must be worried sick about me. They've always been so
protective."
"And my folks, too," Umi added, looking much the same. "They
may be nutty, but they dote on me so much... "
Fuu said nothing, just watching the detective with that same
quiet smile. He nodded to her, his own smile broadening; he could
tell she'd guessed where they were going.
"I'm aware of that," he said, pushing the door open in front
of himself, "and that's why I brought youWHOA!"
He leaped back, quickly darting out of the way of a greyish
comet that flew through the now-open door and pounced on Hikaru,
panting and lapping at her face as she giggled and tried in vain to
hug it and fight it off at the same time.
"Hikari!" she squealed, delighted. "Oh Hikari, I've missed
you so -much-!"
"What," a deep, serene voice asked from beyond the doorway,
"and you haven't missed us?"
Hikaru's eyes and smile widened as she turned to see her three
brothers emerging from the room, their eyes as filled with joy as her
own.
"Satoru!" she cried, tears of happiness gathering at the
corners of her eyes. "Masaru, Kakeru!"
"HIKARUUU!" the two younger brothers cried in unison, charging
past their oldest brother and seeming to enter a strange sort of
wrestling match flanking either side of their tiny sister, apparently
to see which one would get to hold her.
Hikaru, for her part, just wept with joy and laughed. "Oh you
guys, it's great to see you!"
"Our cute little Hikaru has been returned to us! We'll never
let you out of our sight again!" the younger of the two wrestling
brothers wailed, grabbing Hikaru from his brother's arms.
"We'll keep you safe, Hikaru! We'll keep you in the house
until you're -fifty-!" The momentarily-spurned sibling quickly
snatched her back, and the sister relay was joined in earnest, Hikaru
laughing and hugging Hikari as she was pulled from brother to brother.
"T'ch'nn-k'luongo," Umi muttered, thankful that none of the
participants seemed to have noticed her. "And I thought MY folks were
nuts."
"This does put most idiosyncrasies of personality in a whole
new perspective," Fuu agreed, and the Knights of Sea and the Storm
followed the detective as he beckoned them both past the gleeful
reunion and into the waiting room.
"Some people have no sense of decorum," he smiled, backing
away from the door to let the young Knights pass. "See, -this- is how
it's done."
"Uum'y! Uum'ytz'aa la!"
"Ami'i, Apa'a!" Her face breaking into a joyful smile, the
Hyelian girl dashed across the room, colliding full-on with her
parents and sinking happily into their wordless embrace.
"Honeychile', yo yo!"
"Shiggidy-shiggidy-shwa!"
"Father, Mother, Kuu!" Fuu also broke into a run, settling
quite contentedly into the arms of both her parents and her sister,
and their corner of the room eased into a quiet murmur of near-
incomprehensible North Continent Jive as they exchanged greetings and
comfort.
The Inspector, for his part, just smiled and watched the
reunions unfold. The unintelligible consoling of the Hououjis, the
bizarre tug-of-war of the Shidous, and the silent assurance of the
R'yuu-z'kys each spoke full and loving volumes about their respective
homes. He leaned himself beside the door and gazed at some
ill-defined point in space.
"For a man who just reunited three families," a quiet voice
noted beside him, "you seem rather melancholy."
Martin looked toward its source, and found the oldest Shidou
brother, Satoru, standing nearby. He nodded and resumed his previous
empty stare.
"My wife and I have a daughter who's been gone for a few years,
now," he replied softly. "Physically, she's about the same age as
these three - and always will be... she was a cloning error, discarded,
and we gave her a home, a family."
"There's little more anyone could ask," Satoru said.
"She wasn't abducted like your sister, of course, she left of
her own accord. It was just that time for her... she'd learned all
she could, discovered the beginnings of what life had to offer... but
to grow, she had to move out from under our shadows. So she packed
her bag, said her goodbyes, and went out to make her way among the
stars."
Satoru nodded sagely. "Every hatchling can feel its proper
time to leave the nest, to seek its own life and freedom." He
regarded his still-warring brothers dubiously from the corner of his
eye and added, "No matter how much some may deny it."
The detective smiled. "We get a letter every once in a while,
if she can find a mailbox and scrape up money for postage. She's
practically living hand-to-mouth, but, well, that's the way she wants
it. She's had enough of ease and comfort - she wants to -live-." He
chuckled, shaking his head. "And dammit, that's what she's doing."
"Life is a gift," Satoru observed. "We must celebrate it."
"Or die trying," Martin added. "And speaking of celebrations - "
He was interrupted by a small twitter from his collar. He
froze for a moment, hoping it was just his imagination, but then it
twittered again.
"... it appears I don't get one," he grumbled, his arms sagging
at his sides.
"The call to duty, I presume," Satoru noted.
The detective nodded, sighing. "It's back to the trail of
Carmen Sandiego for me," he muttered. "Ah, well - long as I get to
do something like this every so often, it's worth it."
"Sometimes," the voice of Fuu Hououji pointed out, "it's the
small rewards that are the best ones."
Martin looked up, and noticed that everyone was gathered
around him, watching him expectantly - even the younger Shidous had
ended their dispute to join the audience.
"Indeed," he said with a smile, and straightened. "Okay,
folks, it looks like I won't be able to join you, but before I go, I'd
just like to point out that there's a very large celebration and
banquet going on in the Great Hall down at the end of the street -
just follow the girls back outside and head right, you can't miss it
and I'm sure they'd love to have you. They may not think they're
celebrating your family reunions, but if anyone asks, you just tell
'em I said they were."
"Well," Umi queried with a mischievous smile, "that's all well
and good, but who are -you- to make that decision?"
(Fuu slipped off her glasses and quietly palmed her face.)
In response to that, Detective Rose smiled just a bit more
broadly, and raised his left fist to touch his chest. Just as the
mental touch of the violet Lens mounted in the back of his hand was
causing everyone present to gasp, a curious ripple spread out from the
Lens, changing his wardrobe as it washed over him. The standard black
suitcoat turned royal purple and double-breasted, with large, gold
buttons, and a long, flowing cape tumbled behind his shoulders; the
white business shirt became a deep violet turtleneck, with a matching
scarf draped loosely about his throat. The transformation complete,
he lowered his left hand, then mounted a wide-brimmed fedora on his
head with his right.
"I am the terror," he replied, "that flaps in the night. I am
the beacon that seeks out the lost."
"Oh, WOW!" Hikaru grinned, cutting him off. "You're the
Hammer! We read about you in history class a few weeks ago!"
"Chief Inspector Rose is a close friend of Corwin's family,"
Fuu added, having restored her composure. "We met briefly at the
Christmas party last year. It's only natural that he took such a keen
interest in our disappearance."
Hammer nodded, smiling. "I don't usually relish the thought
of running into a casual acquaintance while I'm on business, but in
this case, I'll make an exception." He sighed. "Anyway, I'd better
get moving - gotta tell my wife I've been called away, at least.
Don't forget to ask for directions back to New Avalon after you're
done at the party."
"We will," Satoru Shidou nodded. "And once again, thank you."
"Yes," L'nyrr'd R'yuu-z'ky agreed, hugging Uum'y again.
"Thank you for returning our precious daughter to us."
"And for returning us to our families," Fuu smiled.
Hammer nodded, smiling and tugging at the tip of his hat as he
moved toward the door. "Just doin' my job, folks. So long, take
care, hopefully the next time we meet will have nothing to do with
work. Peace out," he added with a wave to the Hououjis, then slipped
out of the room and was gone.
There was a long, quiet moment, and then the Knight of the
Flame spun and addressed the group in her own unique fashion.
"Well, guys, you heard the man - there's a party out there
that -needs- us! Let's GO!"
The celebration was held back in the Great Hall, the pews and
impedimentia of the Investiture having been cleared away during the
wedding and replaced by a pair of huge bench tables, one down either
side of the room, groaning under the finest feast the Golden City
could muster. Asgard has been famous throughout the ages for the
caliber of its feasts and festivals, and this was a -double- party, a
celebration for not one but -two- joyous events that had touched this
extended circle of relations and friends. The staff of Odin's
kitchens had kicked out all the stops and outdone themselves.
The DSM orchestra made the transition from the Valkyrie Hall
to Odin's Great Hall without difficulty, setting up on the same stage
where the Council had voted on Corwin's fate. This was also the stage
where once the greatest heroes in history had celebrated their victory
in the Final Battle with song. Kaitlyn was not unaware of this; after
all, she had two beloved brothers who could trace their origins
directly to that night and the night before it. Her heart sang within
her as she directed her schoolmates in their second setup of the day.
"Good Lord, look at you, Kate," Devlin Carter mused as he
re-tuned his cello. He was on special leave from the International
Police Organization's Psionics Academy on Jyurai, and his red and gray
cadet's uniform didn't quite fit in, but he'd slipped back into his
old place in the orchestra with ease, having practiced his part on his
own in anticipation of this very event.
"You'd think -you- were the one gettin' exalted an' married
today, what?" the young Englishman added, grinning.
"He's right," Azalynn dv'Ir Natashkan concurred. "You're
-glowing-."
"T-t-two of the p-people I l-love most in a-all the world
g-g-got wishes g-granted this m-morning," Kate replied with a grin.
"I sh-should be c-crying?"
"Well, I suppose when you put it that way," said Devlin, "who
am I to argue? This -is- the happiest group I've ever been in. Not a
negative emotion in the place."
Kaitlyn smiled, then tapped her baton on her second podium of
the day. The sound carried throughout the Great Hall thanks to the
place's unique acoustics, and, smiling, she turned to face the Hall.
An enormous, bald-headed, coal-skinned fellow unfolded himself
from behind a huge rack of what appeared to be variously-sized anvils
and walked with seismic tread to the front, where he stood beside and
dwarfed his conductor.
"Ladies and gentlemen," he said in a great, booming voice that
fit right in here in the Hall of the Gods. "Good afternoon, and
welcome. I am the Honorable J. Maurice McEchearn the Fourth, and
behind me is the Deedlit Satori Mandeville Memorial Institute Student
Orchestra."
The assembled students rose, their silver uniform braids and
buttons glittering in the light from the Great Hall's skylights, and
bowed as one. A few of them didn't quite match; there were a pair of
blue-skinned Gamilon girls in the uniform of their local navy, for
instance, and a young blond Earthman in grey and red, and of course
deputy leader Miki Kaoru, who still wore his blue and white Ohtori
dress uniform, saber and all. Kate caught her deputy's eye and gave
him a grin and a wink which he cheerfully returned.
"Leading us today," Moose orated on, "will be our duly elected
maestro, our student president, the guiding light of all that we do in
the name of song, She Who Must Be Obeyed, the very lovely and
stupendously talented Miss Kaitlyn Hutchins."
Kate gave him a mildly, good-naturedly irked look at his
accustomed flowery praise and bowed formally to the audience.
"Also note our deputy conductor, Kaitlyn's ablest minion, He
Who Must Be Obeyed If Kaitlyn Isn't Here, the Lord of Time, the, well,
not lovely, but I've heard the ladies say he's awful cute, and
undeniably brilliant, Mr. Miki Kaoru."
Kate gave Moose another look, a bit stronger this time, as
Miki, his face showing a bit of a blush, got up from his seat next to
the grand piano at the stage's corner and bowed again. Somehow, he
resisted the urge to time his own introduction's applause.
As he returned to his seat, Kate raised a hand and gestured to
the piano itself. At the keys sat a young woman in a slightly
different uniform, black and white like the DSM band uniform but
trimmed in gold instead of silver; the girl herself bore a striking
resemblance to Miki.
Smiling, Moose went on, "Now, please attend the work of our
guest pianist today, from Tenjou Academy in Cephiro: Stand astonished
at the unparallelled beauty and unrivalled skill of the one, the only,
the indispensible Miss Kozue Kaoru."
Kate thwacked Moose in the arm with her baton in mock
exasperation and shooed him back to his place with a smile, then
turned and folded her hands before her to listen with the rest.
/* "Hikari Sasu Niwa" _Shoujo Kakumei Utena:
Zettai Shinka Kakumei Zenya_ */
Kozue spread her hands over the keys, paused for a moment, and
then began to play a soft, sweet song, one whose basic theme had
appeared in the part of the wedding suite that had served as the
bride's processional. A hush fell over the room as, from the back,
the bride and groom emerged into the huge clear space between the two
great bench tables and began, all alone, to dance.
As she swept her bride around the Great Hall to the sweet
sound of the Kaoru twins' song, Utena smiled reminiscently and asked
softly, "Do you remember the first time we danced?"
"Of course!" Anthy replied with a laugh. "How could I forget?
I was wearing a tablecloth."
Utena gave a chuckle in return. "You looked pretty sharp in
that tablecloth, if I do say so myself," she said.
They had the floor to themselves for that number; it was only
after Kozue was finished and the full orchestra began playing
classical waltz numbers and dances that the others came onto the floor
to join them.
Uum'y R'yuu-z'ky stood off to one side and sighed with the
fond exasperation with which she often viewed her parents. Hikaru was
dancing with one of her brothers, having been all but dragged onto the
floor, and Fuu was with her father, whose unspeakably loud suit
clearly identified him as the Right Honorable Ambassador from the
Republic of Bodacious Vee to the Republic of Zeta Cygni. Umi's
parents were dancing with each other, and to look at their faces, they
might as well have been alone on the dance floor.
One hundred twenty-six years of marriage, Umi remarked to
herself, and the honeymoon goes on.
She smiled fondly and thought to herself, I hope the Tenjous
are as lucky.
Then, apropos of nothing whatsoever, the absolutely random
thought crossed her mind: I wonder where that dragon got off to?
She blinked, mildly irritated by her own mind's sudden jump
into irrelevancy, and realized that there was a young man standing
there smiling at her.
He wasn't elven, though she had noticed a number of elves -
true elves, she imagined, this being Asgard - in the crowd of well-
wishers; but she wasn't sure he was human either. There was something
a little bit fey about the lines of his face. His skin was tanned
golden-brown, a rich color that stood out amid the pallor of the
Norsemen and -women who crowded the hall; he had short but bushy white
hair with a deep red streak at his widow's peak and long sidelocks.
He was dressed in gold-trimmed white, after the fashion of Asgard's
nobles, and there was a large sword slung across his back, its grip
fashioned from what looked like a single long bone.
He grinned as she took him in, then bowed and said, "Lady
Uum'y, Knight of the Sea - may I have this dance?"
Umi blinked. Why did he seem so -familiar-? Why did he
-sound- familiar? She knew she'd never seen him before, but...
Shrugging inwardly, motivated as much by curiosity as anything
else, she nodded graciously and went out onto the floor with him.
He was a good dancer, smooth and graceful, and for the first
minute or so that he whirled her around the floor, he said nothing;
only smiled at her, a curious, knowing kind of smile that eventually
started to get on her nerves a little bit.
Finally, still dancing, she said in a soft tone of mild
irritation, "What?"
He smiled a little wider. "You don't recognize me, do you?"
he asked.
"No," she said. "Should I?" she asked, feeling certain as she
did so that yes, in fact, she should.
"I guess not," he replied, shrugging airily. "After all, I've
gained some weight since the last time you saw me."
This deepened the quizzical, slightly annoyed look on her
face into the beginnings of an actual scowl. "What?" she said.
The young man swept her into a turn, dipped her low, and
murmured as he did, "It's me. Nall."
Umi's mother looked over her husband's shoulder across the
dance floor and noticed her daughter dancing with a handsome young
local; the girl's face was close to his and she was whispering
something intently to him. The elder R'yuu-z'ky chuckled.
"Something funny?" asked her husband.
"I'm just watching Uum'y dance with that young man," she
replied, and they turned so that he could see.
"Her face is so -serious-!" L'nyrr'd laughed. "That's our
Uum'y, though. Such a serious young woman. Do you suppose she knows
him?"
"It certainly seems that way," replied M'belyyn'da. "See how
close they're dancing, how intently she's whispering in his ear."
"Hmm," mused L'nryy'd. "Do you suppose our little girl has
found her first love?" he asked, his eyes twinkling mischievously.
"I hope so," Umi's mother replied. "I hope she's found a
brave and strong champion - just like you, my love."
"You're too kind," replied L'nyrr'd with an indulgent smile.
Once she got calmed down enough to be proud of herself for not
making a scene, Umi shook her head in wonder at the still-smiling face
of Nall.
"You're quite a piece of work, cat," she told him. "How long
have you been able to do -this- little trick?"
"I learned it this morning," Nall replied. "They don't teach
it to dragons who haven't manifested their full forms yet; it's too
dangerous. I wanted you to be the first one to see it, because I
wouldn't have made that manifestation without you."
Umi smiled, unexpectedly touched. "Why... thank you," she
said.
"'sOK," Nall said, grinning. He blinked, then, as though he'd
just noticed something; raising his left hand from her shoulder, he
flicked a fingertip gently against the ragged little patch on the
lower edge of her right ear, about an inch from the base. "You had
that healed," he remarked, "but not fixed? Why?"
Umi's cheeks went a little bit pink as she hesitated, then
told him, "I'm not sure. Maybe... I wanted to keep it to remember
that time by."
"Oh." Now it was Nall's turn to be touched. "Gosh.
That's... nice, in a freaky ritual-scarring kind of way... "
Umi rolled her eyes. "If it bothers you that much," she
threatened, "I'll get it fixed."
"Wouldn't dream of it," Nall replied hastily. "What did your
parents think?"
"They haven't mentioned it," Umi replied. "I imagine they
figure I'll tell them if I want them to know. They're pretty good
about that kind of thing."
"I don't suppose you'd like to introduce me?"
"Why? Are you my boyfriend now?"
"Well... " Nall hesitated. "Stranger things -have-
happened," he finally said.
"... I guess maybe they have," Umi replied.
Leaving her orchestra in Miki's capable hands for a while,
Kate went to one of the tables, collected a tall, thin glass of
mineral water, and sipped at it as she walked around the edge of the
dance floor, nodding and smiling to friends and acquaintances. In the
far corner, she found the figure she was looking for, a tall, slim
girl with her golden-orange hair in a cascade of curls.
Juri Arisugawa stood with her back to one of the Great Hall's
buttresses, arms folded across her chest, frowning thoughtfully at the
couples circulating on the dance floor. Her eyes were focused
somewhere a million miles away. Around her there was a clear space
with about a four-foot radius where her air of intense dissatisfaction
had discouraged all from approaching.
Kate finished her water, flung the glass sidelong into the
nearest of the hall's many fireplaces, and walked boldly into that
circle, going right up to touch Juri on the elbow. When the fire-
haired girl had snapped back from her thoughtful distance and focused
on Kate, the latter smiled and asked,
"A-aren't you d-dancing?"
"Nobody's asked me," Juri replied flatly. Then her expression
softened somewhat, and she went on in a quieter tone of voice as
she admitted, "Well, that, and you were busy with your orchestra and
I didn't want to interrupt you."
"W-well, I'm h-here now," Kate pointed out helpfully. "A-and
-I'm- asking." She held out her hand. "C-come dance w-with me."
Juri regarded her for a long moment, and Kate thought for a
moment that she was going to refuse; but then, with that hint of a
smile that the conductor knew so well, she nodded.
"All right," she said, and took the proffered hand. The two
women advanced onto the dance floor, then faced each other, turning on
the hinge of their linked hands. There was a brief moment of
awkwardness when both reached for the other's waist; then Kate smiled
and put her hand instead on Juri's shoulder, and as the orchestra
swept into a new bar, the two let themselves be caught up in it.
Both were competent, if not inspired or much-practiced,
dancers, and their workmanlike styles matched well. Neither of them
had many opportunities -for- dancing, what with the shorter girl's
musical performance duties and the taller's general inclinations
towards solitude, but when suitably motivated by each other, such
concerns seemed trivial. They moved effortlessly about the floor,
unaware that, along the sidelines, friends of theirs from both
schools, many of whom knew one but not the other, were staring in
disbelief.
As the couple of honor returned to the sidelines to take a
breather and get something to drink, Utena nudged Anthy and pointed
with her chin.
"That's good to see," said Anthy, smiling. "That's your
friend you were talking about earlier? Kaitlyn?"
"Mm-hmm," Utena replied with a little smirk. "I wondered if
she'd try something like this someday. They're not usually this
public about their relationship."
Anthy picked up a couple of flutes of white wine, handed one
to Utena, and leaned back against the table. "Well," she observed,
"today is a good day for it."
Utena couldn't argue with that; she touched her glass
ringingly to Anthy's and drank.
As the music played and the room turned, Juri felt the weight
of discontentment she'd been feeling start to lift a bit. With this
excellent orchestra playing this lovely music, with the brilliant
sunlight of a beautiful afternoon beaming into this warm and cheerful
hall through the great skylights, and with this kind, pleasant and
pretty girl in her arms, she found it difficult to cling to the funk
she'd settled into after the exultation of the two ceremonies.
On the walk back to Odin's Palace from the Valkyrie Hall,
she'd felt her spirits sagging and embraced the feeling like an old
friend. It had been surprisingly wonderful to see Anthy again,
healthy and happy, finally freed from the curse her life in Cephiro
had been. Now Juri would get a chance to know the real woman behind
the masks that the Rose Bride's role and the Deputy Chairman's
manipulations had forced her to wear, and she found herself looking
forward to it with surprising intensity.
Then, too, it had been a profound relief to see Saionji whole
and alive, and a Katsujinkenryuu Journeyman to boot, after his sudden
transition to Cephiro and his two weeks of tense adventure while
pretending to be the Deputy Chairman's 'insane' flunky. Who would have
ever thought that Juri would have cause to be concerned with his well-
being as a serious friend?
("You hit... the Deputy Chairman... with a -stick-?!" Juri had
asked with a measure of incredulity when Saionji had related the tale
of his actions in Cephiro, while the two of them had waited for Presea
to reforge Kaitlyn's sword that morning.
"Well, Kaitlyn-sensei's sword was sheathed and he was
armored, so he thought I'd gone -totally- off the deep end. I don't
think he even realized I was armed," he had replied.
"You continue to amaze me, Saionji."
"Thank you, I try.")
It had been beautiful to see the missing piece of Utena's soul
fitted tidily back into place by the deft hands of Kaitlyn's brother,
to the sounds of an orchestra trained and inspired by Kate and Miki.
Despite all her reservations about Corwin and Utena's relationship,
Juri had to admit that the young god had pulled through in the crunch,
going the extra mile to preserve and cement the very love she had
feared he would endanger; and she had nothing but approval for him
having passed his Ascension Trial. Where both ceremonies were
concerned, she was pleased to have been invited and proud to have
participated.
But after all that, after the revolution of a whole world,
after a succession of miracles so manifest even a skeptic like Juri
had to grit her teeth and believe in them, there were still issues
that came to mind that could cause the mildly curmudgeonly red-haired
Duelist to mope. It was a bad habit of hers, she knew, but sometimes
she wondered if she had acquired a taste for it.
And so it was that as she had walked back along the Grand
Boulevard to the Great Hall, several thoughts had preyed on her mind,
souring her mood. Perhaps she didn't feel as bad as she once would
have felt, but until she sorted out -what- she was feeling, she hadn't
felt up to participating in the general revelery going on around her,
as the notables from two schools and beyond danced and intermingled.
In fact, that was part of her lament right there - she felt the odd
woman out at the reception, and for more than one reason.
It was not much of a secret to those who knew Juri that her
taste in romantic partners ran much more toward women than men, and
the fact that most women weren't likewise made it somewhat difficult
to casually go up to one of them and ask them to dance. It was an
old, well-worn complaint, and one that Juri was familiar with. But in
her quiet retreat to the far corner to wait out the dances, Juri had
come to another realization that had both surprised and dismayed her:
She didn't want to return to Cephiro.
The way back to her homeland had been revealed by the actions
of Corwin and Utena, and while knowing that there -was- a way back was
a great relief, it had dawned on the Duelist that she no longer
thought of Cephiro and Ohto - er, Tenjou Academy as "home". Juri's
ties to her family, while dutiful, had never been particularly strong,
especially when compared to those she had witnessed in the past year.
For one thing, she'd never quite gotten around to figuring out how to
express her sexual preferences to them, for fear of how they'd react.
She'd let them know that she was alive and all right, after
having been missing for so long, but if they weren't likely to react
well to the declaration that she was a lesbian, how in all the heavens
would they react to the knowledge that she had been in an entirely
seperate -universe- for the better part of a year? Admittedly, the
revolution of the world made it easier for anyone in Cephiro with a
-grain- of perception to believe that the world held wonders, but
still - the events she'd witnessed, the places she'd visited, the
things she'd done, the people she'd met and learned to be friends
with... they had shaped and changed her in ways that, if she took a
step back and regarded herself from the point of view of a third
party, quite frankly startled her.
How could she even explain all that she had gone through in
the past two and a half years? The Grand Tournament, the transition
to Midgard, the adventures both at WPI and DSM, all leading up to
events here in the City of Gods - for somebody who had not been there,
it could have been taken as some wild fantasy concocted by an errant
child, not a dyed-in-the-wool rationalist like Juri Arisugawa.
Save that they -had- happened. And faced with this knowledge,
she did not relish the idea of trying to explain it to her parents or
her elder sister. Much better to stay with her friends and family
on Jeraddo and in New Avalon than to try and go back, save that she
knew she could not put it off forever.
And while she was on the subject of fantastic events, what
about the final culmination of the Grand Tournament? Yes, it was
wonderful that Akio Ohtori had finally paid for all the torment and
tribulations that he had put the Duelists through, and justice had
been served in a very definite way. But a part of Juri still felt
unfulfilled - didn't she, and Wakaba, and the rest have some right to
play a part in the downfall in the Deputy Chairman? While she was
glad that Utena, Corwin, and the Rune Knights had managed to survive
and triumph against impossible odds, a small part of her selfishly
wished that it had been otherwise, that they -all- could have been
involved. It was remarkably petty of her, and she knew this. There
was no way any of them back on Jeraddo could have expected this chain
of events to occur, but she still had the feelings all the same.
With all of these concerns weighing on her mind, Juri Arisugawa
had not been in a mood to party. Thus she had stood alone at the edge
of the dance floor, watching other people be happy while she herself
descended into depression, savoring it like a fine familiar wine,
cursing her own perverse heart as she did so.
That is, until Kate had drifted over to drag her out of her
funk and onto the dance floor, which, while surprising, was not
unappreciated. After all, it gave her a chance to unburden herself
without feeling like a fool, for which Juri was very grateful.
All this Juri related to Kaitlyn in a quiet voice as they
danced.
"M-mmm," Kate interjected as Juri paused in her recitation.
"H-heavy st-stuff."
"Indeed," Juri replied, regarding the brown-haired girl.
"When I look back on everything that's happened, everything we went
through, I have to wonder - What was it all for? What was the
point of it?"
Kate arched an eyebrow, and glanced around at the soaring
hall, the dancing couples, the performing orchestra and general
merriment that permeated the gathering like a fine perfume. "Y-you
r-really have t-to ask?"
"Well, we hardly could have -predicted- all this occuring,"
Juri calmly rejoined as she led them into another turn around the
dance floor. "And while I admit the outcome is certainly very
pleasing, and good for all concerned, it's still the little details
that get to me."
"Mmm. T-true," Kate admitted with a slight nod. "B-but
you're w-worrying t-too much," she continued. "The T-Tournament's
ov-ver, and g-good r-riddance to it. Y-you survived it, and g-grew
b-because of it and w-what h-happened back home. I k-know Ut-tena
wants t-to stay back on Jerad-do, and s-so does Miki - s-so you'd
still b-be welcome there," the shorter girl said, her cheeks pinking
slightly.
Juri nodded quietly, her own expression softening. "I'm
glad for that, I truly am. But how would I explain it all to my
parents?" she asked, curiously, the unspoken addition of 'how would
I explain to them about -us-?' shared between the two girls.
Kate was lucky in that regard, and it was a thing Juri had
sometimes had cause to envy her for. Her parents and siblings were
well aware that she was at least bisexual, and nobody seemed to mind
or even particularly care. Juri supposed four-hundred-year-old
parents had pretty much seen it all anyway; Kate's parents showed an
almost shocking, at least to Juri's more conservative background,
degree of equanimity toward that aspect of their children's lives.
Juri's family wasn't exactly -reactionary-, but she remembered things
they'd said from time to time, unknowing, and wasn't sanguine about
their taking the news like Kate's would.
Kate knew all this from conversations they'd had, and so she
was really speaking of -both- explanations when she mused, "W-well,
I-if y-you want m-me t-to, w-we can g-go and s-see them t-together
s-somet-time and t-talk it over w-with t-them," her blush increasing.
"If I n-need t-to, I'll h-have Serge s-sit on 'em," she added with an
impish smile.
"All right," Juri acquiesed with a slight chuckle, before
her mien became more serious. "But then what? Where do we go from
here? What do we -do- with our lives, now that Cephiro's been
'revolutionized'?"
Kaitlyn tilted her head, as if lost in thought. "W-well,
you c-could g-go and g-get a B-busin-ness Ad-dminist-tration
deg-gree..."
Juri arched one slim tangerine eyebrow. "-Seriously-,
Kaitlyn..."
"S-seriously," Kate went on, as if Juri hadn't interjected,
"d-don't w-worry about it. D-Dad tells me my g-g-great-grandf-father
used to say, 'D-don't sweat the s-small stuff.' It-t's n-not like
anybody at d-d-DS-m-m-M is f-forcing y-you to d-decide Right N-now.
W-we're s-still j-juniors in h-high school, y-you know. T-teachers
d-don't start pressur-ring until s-senior year b-before g-graduation -
and th-that's only to p-p-pick a c-college, n-not a c-career."
They swung around, comfortable in each other's arms, and
Kate continued, "J-just hang out w-with us, k-keep going t-to DSM,
and the f-future will t-take care of it-tself in t-time."
Juri nodded slightly, once again becoming lost in thought, and
for a while, the two of them just danced, each one involved with her
own private ruminations as the orchestra played. Luckily, this was a
long number; when they'd planned the program, Miki had been worried
that it might be too long, but people were handling it fine. Juri and
Kate might well be the only couple out there who'd been there since
the song began at this point.
It was Kate who started the conversation again, as she asked,
out of the blue, "B-by the way, w-what ab-bout Shiori?"
Juri blinked, slightly startled out of her reverie to look
Kaitlyn in the face. "Shiori? What about her?" she asked, her
expression puzzled and slightly closed out of reflex.
"I w-was w-wondering h-how your r-reunion w-went," Kate
patiently explained. "I w-was g-going t-to ask y-you l-last night
w-when I f-finally got back, b-but I was s-so t-tired I w-wasn't
up to sp-peaking," she admitted with an embarrased blush. "S-sorry
'b-bout that..."
"Indeed you were," Juri said with a faint, fond smile. "You
were out like a light as soon as your head hit the pillow," she added;
then her expression sobered.
"And s-since then, I h-haven't had the t-time to g-get the
f-full st-tory out of -anyone-," Kate went on, "esp-pecially Sh-hiori,
s-since I only r-really saw her b-briefly l-last night w-when I g-got
in and she w-was leaving. S-she s-seemed n-nice en-nough, f-from what
I s-saw..."
"Nice enough now," Juri murmured quietly, with a hint of
troubled concern in her voice that Kaitlyn caught onto immediately.
"P-please, J-Juri... w-will you t-tell me what h-happened?"
And so Juri told her: of Shiori's point of view of things
after the orange-haired Duelist's dissapearance; about how she had
become a Student Councilor in the wake of the serial disappearances,
ironically taking Juri's original position as Treasurer. About how
life had gone on in their absence, how the Academy had fared, even as
things continued to become more strange within and without it; and how
Shiori had unwittingly been lured by Akio Ohtori into becoming a
mindless puppet like Lafarga, focused only on carrying out his will
for the limited time she had been under his thrall during the final
days.
"Oh, she's doing fine -now-," Juri finished, her expression
downcast. "Fuu healed her at the end of their duel on the Dueling
Platform, she hardly -remembers- anything that happened after she went
to see the Deputy Chairman that one time in the middle of winter.
But... " Juri sighed, packing a novel's worth of exposited discontent
into that one sound.
"W-would you have b-been able t-to do anyth-thing ab-bout
it, h-had you b-been there?"
"I don't know," Juri admitted quietly as she closed her
eyes, holding her friend close as they danced. "But dammit, I should
have been there all the same... "
"A-and what d-does -Shiori- h-have to s-say this?"
"Oh, she absolved me of my worries, of my involvement or
lack thereof, before you got back, Kaitlyn." Juri sighed, and pressed
on. "But that doesn't stop me from feeling that it should have been
different, that I should have been trying to get back to protect her
instead of staying back home without a care. When we were children I
looked out for her. I guess I feel as though I let her down... "
Inwardly, Kaitlyn sighed with a mixture of fond amusement and
frustration. She loved Juri, she really did, but sometimes the
redhead's capacity for self-pity could try even Kate's noteable
patience and good humor. But Kate helped her through it, all the
same, because she cared about her.
It dawned then on Kaitlyn that she meant what she had just
thought.
She -did- love Juri. She cared about her, liked being with
her as a friend, and accepted what had happened in her life with calm
equanimity. She was attracted to Juri, both mentally and physically,
and they got along well, both in school and out. And here, at this
time, in this place, with this beautiful woman in her arms, Kaitlyn
was feeling somewhat more bold than usual, given the circumstances;
and given all these factors, she knew a sure way to snap Juri out of
her funk.
"W-well, I th-think she h-has the r-right id-dea. You're
b-being t-too hard on yourself ag-gain, Juri," Kate commented,
conversationally. "T-there's st-tuff t-that's out of anyb-body's
c-control, a-and s-sometimes the b-best th-things in life h-happen
when y-you don't l-look for them."
Juri looked down at Kaitlyn, being somewhat the taller of the
two, and asked softly, "And what exactly do you mean by that?"
"I m-mean," said Kaitlyn with a soft, shy air, "I a-asked you
t-to d-dance b-because I want to h-have you n-near me. N-now, and
f-for a l-long time t-to come. M-my heart is u-unusually b-bold
today."
Unable to believe her ears, her body entirely on autopilot
now, Juri gazed in startled contemplation at the face of the girl in
her arms while a conversation they'd had almost a year ago flickered
through her mind. "Kaitlyn... are you saying you... you -are- in love
with me?"
"Yes," said Kaitlyn flatly, "th-that's -exactly- w-what I'm
s-saying."
Her motor skills finally overwhelmed by her mental freeze-up,
Juri stopped dancing and just stared at her friend, struggling to
process what she'd just heard.
Smiling, Kate took advantage of the window of opportunity,
leaned closer, and gently but firmly (and very publicly) kissed her.
"Dvhil naZHAI!" Azalynn murmured under her breath to Amanda
Dessler. "Look at the Chief!"
Amanda cocked an eyebrow with a faint grin. "Indeed."
Miki Kaoru smiled, waited, and triggered his stopwatch again
at the appropriate time. 17.42 seconds, not bad at all. The two of
them should have done that a long time ago.
(For the record, the ensuing applause outlasted the event
itself at 25.29 seconds.)
Over by the buffet table, almost all of the current Tenjou
Academy Student Council had gathered to wait out one of the dances at
Wakaba Shinohara's insistance. She hadn't particularly been
buddy-buddy with them during their time at what was then Ohtori
Academy, but just seeing the familiar faces once more had awakened
within Wakaba a desire to fill them in on the adventures she had
experienced since her transition to Midgard courtesy of the Magic
Midget, and to find out how they had done after her absence.
They took this information with varying degrees of
enthusiasm. Keiko Sonoda was interested, certainly; she and Wakaba
had never really been pals, but they'd been allies. Shiori Takatsuki
was a little bit preoccupied. Kozue, who had replaced Wakaba as
president, wasn't even there; she'd stayed with the orchestra,
sticking close to her brother. And poor Mitsuru Tsuwabuki was only
here in body, having come to participate in Utena and Anthy's wedding
and been prevailed upon only by Wakaba's most determined cajoling to
come to the reception. In spirit, he was still in Cephiro, mourning
a friend few others would grieve for, one of the few casualties of the
great upheaval Akio Ohtori had wrought upon his world.
Wakaba understood this - perhaps better than most, given what
had passed between them the last time she had seen Nanami Kiryuu. She
herself was still too shocked by the news of Nanami's death to feel
much about it - but back during the Grand Tournament Mitsuru had been
in love with the girl, with all his nine-year-old heart, and now that
he was a wise and worldly man of eleven he still felt her passing like
a knife in his chest. To him, this wasn't a wedding reception or a
celebration of a god's ascension - it was a wake.
So Wakaba, having convinced him to stay, had since left him
alone; and she wasn't bothered that he wasn't contributing as the
Councilors stood together talking. Their conversation was interrupted
when the applause filled the Great Hall; the combined group turned to
regard what was causing the ruckus.
"Arisugawa... is kissing somebody? In PUBLIC?!" Keiko quietly
blurted out in shock, her jaw hanging slack. Next to her, Tsuwabuki
blushed furiously as he boggled at the display, shocked momentarily
out of his funk.
"Well, technically, Kate's kissing Juri, but I don't think
Juri's complaining," Wakaba replied airily.
"No... I don't think so," Shiori concurred, her own expression
conveying surprise most effectively. She had known that her old
friend and the student conductor had been seeing each other, Wakaba
and later Juri herself had made it plain, but to see the expression
of such a relationship -publicly-, and by -Juri- no less... !
O brave new world that has such things possible in it, Shiori
reflected ruefully, and took another sip of her... well, she thought
it was root beer. These changes would take some getting used to; but
all in all, she didn't think she'd mind it.
She tried to think what a Juri involved in a happy, stable
relationship would be like, failed, and decided she would enjoy
finding out.
"S-still wondering w-what t-to do next?" Kaitlyn asked Juri
sweetly as they finally broke off the kiss.
"I... ah... no, not really," Juri almost stammered, her
face flushed as she struggled to recover her composure.
"G-good," Kate nodded decisively, and then went on in a
quieter, more contemplative tone of voice. "I-if y-you w-want,
y-you... c-could spend th-the n-night w-with me, t-tonight... I
d-don't t-think Ut-tena's g-going t-to b-be ar-round," she said, a
blush creeping back onto her face even as Juri's cheeks cooled.
"It does seem somehow unlikely," Juri wryly replied, and then
went on more quietly, "And... if you'd have me... I'd like that."
Kate nodded, still blushing, and the two of them danced in
silence once more as each thought over this particular turn of events.
Juri, in particular, reflected on the fact that Kate had asked her
quite plainly to sleep with her that night. Oh, the two of them had
shared a bed and slept together before, in the strictest possible
sense - Christmas Night at Castle Eyrie had been one particular
notable occasion - but Juri suspected that if that were all she meant,
Kate wouldn't have felt the need to mention it specifically. But
given the overall mood of the day, and oh, that -kiss-... ! Could it
be that Kaitlyn was considering taking things to the next 'logical'
step in their relationship, despite her earlier reticence?
She couldn't tell for sure Kate's intentions; but it occured
to Juri right then that in the rush of the past two days, it appeared
that Kaitlyn had totally forgotten about her birthday, which was this
very same day, the day of Corwin's Ascension and Utena and Anthy's
wedding. (Well, she thought wryly, we'll none of us ever forget their
anniversary... ) Juri herself had needed to totally scrap what she
had originally planned to do for Kate's birthday celebration in the
rapid transition from Midgard to Asgard. But now...
So, she reflected, what better present to give to somebody
you love - and who loves you back - than yourself? It seemed to be
a day for that sort of thing, after all.
Smiling slightly to herself, Juri continued to lead Kate
around the dance floor. She didn't voice her private thoughts, nor
did she need to. Anything that could be said between them on the
subject could wait until the reception was over. Only when they were
together privately Juri could ask if Kate had meant what she thought
she had said - and if not, to offer that to her, all the same.
Little did Juri realize that Kaitlyn Hutchins was having the
exact same thoughts as they finished their dance.
(Except for part about her birthday, which she had, indeed,
clean forgotten about.)
Utena and Anthy, still standing together near the drinks
table, smiled at each other and watched Kate and Juri finally leave
the dance floor, Juri still blushing but smiling amid the scattered
applause of the witnesses.
"Sweet," Utena observed.
"Mm," said Anthy. "Lady Utena - "
"I wish you'd stop calling me that," Utena interrupted.
"I'm only being respectful."
"I don't think that's even -accurate-, though."
"Oh. Well, let's see," said Anthy, looking thoughtful.
"You're the Rune Knight of the Rose, so I guess that would make you
Sir Utena. But you're the Prince of Cephiro, so, Lord Tenjou,
perhaps? Hmm, that could be cumbersome. 'Sir Utena, Lord Tenjou'."
Grinning, Utena said, "Why don't we pare it down and go with
'Your Grace'?"
Anthy bowed her head and made a solemn reverence. "If Your
Grace feels that title suits Your Grace best," she said.
"Stop that!" Utena blurted, reddening. "Look, Anthy, I don't
think we really need titles between us any more, do you? Why can't
you just call me by my -name-?"
Anthy smiled. "Well... if you insist, Utena."
"Well, I'm glad we've got -that- cleared up," said Utena with
relief. "What did you want to ask me?"
"If you don't mind, I'd like to dance with Sir Corwin."
"Anthy, you don't have to ask my permission to do things
anymore. The contest is over, remember?"
Anthy looked perplexed and replied with the soul of innocence,
"But I'm your wife."
Utena gave her a long, disbelieving look, then chortled,
snickered, and finally burst out laughing, making people all over the
room look in their direction. She laughed for 21.07 seconds, wiped
her eyes, and gasped, "Go ahead - I'm just going to stand here and
laugh at myself for a while."
Anthy smiled, gave her a quick kiss, and glided off in search
of Corwin. Utena watched her go, still chuckling at herself, then
picked up something that looked like (and turned out, in fact, to be)
a brownie from the table and wandered toward the orchestra stage.
Along the way she was congratulated no fewer than forty-nine times,
occasionally by unknown people with facial tattoos who must have been
there for the part of the celebration that was for Corwin's
Investiture.
Behind the drinks table where the two had just been standing,
bartender Gudrun Truemace drew herself a dark ale, sipped at it, and
regarded the slim dark form of the Rose Bride with a thoughtful
expression; then she put the tankard down on the bar for a moment,
took a small notebook out of her pocket, and jotted a brief memo to
herself. Gudrun was not stupid, but she recognized and readily
admitted that her memory was quirky. If she wrote a thing down, she
would never have to refer to the note; but if she didn't write it
down, she'd never remember it.
This, she definitely wanted to remember.
She smiled, took another pull of her beer, and then turned to
serve another patron.
Corwin was standing talking to his uncle Thor when Thor's
eyebrows suddenly went up and the Thunder God excused himself with an
explosive noise that, for him, was a discreet cough. Corwin turned to
see who was approaching, and paused in mild surprise to see Anthy.
"Oh, uh... hello," he said.
"Hello," she replied.
There was a rather awkward silence. (2.74 seconds.)
"I - " said Corwin.
"Sir - " said Anthy.
There was a rather awkward silence. (3.02 seconds. Kozue
Kaoru came up behind her brother and relieved him of his stopwatch at
this point, tucking it away in a place within her uniform from which
she felt quite certain he, proper soul, would not venture to retrieve
it.)
Corwin grinned sheepishly, scratching at the back of his
head. "Sorry. Go ahead."
"We've got to stop doing that," Anthy observed with plain
amusement. "Would you dance with me, Sir Corwin?"
"Lady Anthy," Corwin replied, "I would be honored."
Corwin was actually quite a competent dancer - as with his
battle skills, he'd been trained by the best - and Anthy, unlike
Utena, was used to following and letting her partner guide her around
the floor (even if she didn't let people do that to her outside of
dancing anymore). They danced in companionable silence through the
first minute of the waltz, and then Corwin exclaimed, rather abruptly,
"-That's- where I'd seen those eyes before!"
Anthy blinked at him, and replied, puzzled, "I beg your
pardon?"
"You were the one who made that prophetic ghost, weren't you?"
he said, his eyes searching her face for a reaction.
"Who made what?" Anthy continued to be puzzled.
Corwin blinked, and looked puzzled himself. "But her eyes
looked just like yours."
Anthy smiled. "Perhaps if you told me the -whole-
circumstance, instead of assuming I know what you're talking about?"
she suggested.
He swung her into the next measures of the dance and told her
about the figure in purple robes who had accosted him and Nall in
Shalhara, and told him that if he didn't rejoin the Rune Knights,
everything they were working towards would end in ashes and death.
And then he told her that when he'd pulled the veil away from
the figure's face, it had melted into nothing but a scrap of purple
fabric - "But her eyes were -just- like yours, and her hands looked
like yours too. I'm a craftsman... I remember people's hands."
Anthy's face had lapsed slowly into stillness as she
listened, and she tensed slightly in Corwin's arms. For a moment,
Corwin had to work to get her to move out of the other dancers' way,
but then she relaxed and her eyes focused on him again.
"If I'm remembering correctly," she mused, "Saionji had been
sent away a day earlier, and I was very afraid that day that I was
going to have to... make a leap that Utena had stopped me from making
earlier." Her voice shook slightly. "I remember making a desparate
prayer - not to the Pillar or anyone in particular, just a prayer -
that someone would come and save me, and all of Cephiro with me."
Corwin considered. "That was an awfully generalized plea," he
pointed out.
"Yes," Anthy agreed. "But I was wound up enough at that point
to not really be coherent in my prayers. On the other hand, I -have-
prophesied before, and Cephiro is a world of will."
"Ah." Corwin's eyes lit up as he understood. "So your
desperation took a form of its own - and found one of the people who
-could- help you who was still in Cephiro, since Utena was still stuck
in Midgard."
Anthy nodded. "That is the most reasonable conjecture I can
make," she said quietly. "I couldn't leave the tower, so my prayer
did instead." She smiled up at Corwin. "And I'm very glad it did.
Thank you, Sir Corwin, for coming to my rescue - and for coming to
Cephiro's."
He grinned at her. "High Priestess," he answered, equally
formally as the music of the dance wound to a close, "it was my
pleasure."
When the next number was finished, Kate returned to the
bandstand smiling her little piper's smile, the look of private
amusement with the world which marked her best moods. She ascended
the four steps to the cheers and applause of her orchestra (the
precise duration of which, to his brief frustration, Miki Kaoru would
never know).
"A-all right, s-s-settle d-down," she said good-naturedly,
waving a hand to silence them. "Th-think you'd n-never seen anybody
k-k-kiss anybody b-before. H-how are we f-fixed for d-dancing music?"
"Maybe another hour's worth before we start repeating," Miki
replied.
"M-m-maybe? You d-don't know exactly?" Kate grinned at him.
"Y-you may b-be human a-after all."
"Seeing Kozue again... it's got me a little distracted," he
admitted, grinning sheepishly with his arm around his sister.
"And I confiscated his watch," said Kozue with an impish
grin.
"Kate, you're the best," said Utena Tenjou as she mounted the
platform. "Having you and the guys play the music is the cherry on
top of the best day of my life."
(In the background, Azalynn giggled hysterically at Kozue
Kaoru's squeak of, "HEY, you freak!! What the hell?!" as Miki,
undaunted by his sister's strategic placement, retrieved his watch.)
Kate embraced and kissed her friend and replied, "Th-thank
Corwin's Aunt B-Belld-dandy. Sh-she r-rounded us up."
"Oh, I will." Utena turned and looked out at the huge
assemblage, shaking her head and looking wryly daunted. "I'm gonna be
writing thank-you notes until I'm a hundred and six." She mimed being
bent over a desk writing. "'Dear Almighty God: Thanks for letting us
use your place... '"
("You've changed," a red-faced Kozue informed her brother
indignantly as she rearranged her uniform.)
"So," said Azalynn brightly. "Where's your bride? I wanna
meet her! She looks really beautiful, and nice too. Congratulations.
I'd -die- for skin like that," she added with a confidential grin.
("You were always complaining about what a stiff I was," Miki
replied blithely, then timed his sister's resurgent blush.)
Utena reddened a little and thanked Azalynn, refraining from
pointing out that, aside from being a shade or two lighter, she
already -had- skin like that. "She's still talking to Corwin," she
said, pointing them out. "If they're finished before your break is
over I'll bring her up and introduce her."
("This is going to take some getting used to," Kozue mused
dubiously.)
"So are you gonna bring her to school next term?" Azalynn
wanted to know.
("You'll have plenty of time if you come back to Midgard with
me," said Miki.)
"You bet," said Utena. "Anthy's looking forward to it. She
won't be able to enroll for classes until next year, but we'll both be
there for D-term."
"Yay!" cried Azalynn, jumping up from her chair to throw her
arms around Utena's neck. "I was afraid you'd go away and we'd never
see you again."
("I guess I'll -have- to," Kozue said. "Someone's got to keep
you under control, you animal.")
Utena smiled and petted the Dantrovian's bushy head. "Not
this time," she said.
("What, you don't trust Dorothy and Azalynn?" said Miki
innocently, which caused his sister to drop her face into her open
palm.)
Anthy parted from Corwin near the bar, as Gudrun Truemace
seemed to have something she wanted to discuss with him; since the
orchestra was taking a break, she went to find Utena, and met her just
coming down from the band riser.
"I was just looking for you," said Utena with a grin. "C'mon
up and meet the gang."
Most of Utena's Midgardian friends didn't know the full
details of her curious courtship of Anthy Himemiya - only that it had
involved considerable adversity, and some difficulties with Anthy's
family. They'd all seen the one photograph of her Utena had, of
course, and from that and Utena's occasional stories of old times,
they'd each formed an impression, an expectation, of what Anthy would
be like when they finally met her.
In most cases, she wasn't very much like that. She was
soft-spoken, which they'd all expected, because they'd been told that
she was; but she didn't strike them as shy, only quiet. For her part,
Anthy was the soul of equanimity; she didn't bat an eye at Ein, the
cybernetic wonder corgi, or Edward (now partially divested of her
outlandish naval uniform and wearing only her undershirt and the
uniform's green-striped black pants), or the towering Hoffmanite Moose
MacEchearn - or even Sergei, who was by now starting to attain a
rather intimidating size. Kate remembered that Utena had mentioned
the Rose Bride's great fondness for animals, but it pleased her to see
Anthy and the tiger hitting it off so well.
Anthy charmed them all, especially Moose, who was at his
absolute courtliest as he bowed to her and kissed her hand. She
immediately put at ease all those who had been worried that she
wouldn't fit into their group. Watching her handle the big
Hoffmanite's formality and Serge's shameless mugging with equal
aplomb, they all recognized a kindred spirit.
Azalynn had been looking forward to this introduction almost
as much as the one she'd had this morning, and -her- expectations came
much closer to their target than most of the others'. She liked most
people, it was in her nature, but even so, she was surprised and
pleased by how much and how fast she liked Anthy Tenjou. She knew
instantly and certainly that this girl would be a lot of fun to have
around.
"My gosh," she said when her turn came to be introduced.
"You're so beautiful."
Anthy blinked, then smiled. "Why... thank you," she replied.
"Careful," said Utena with a wry grin. "Liza might take that
personally."
Liza Shustal, who sat on the floor next to Azalynn's chair
with one knee drawn up under her chin, grinned lazily and pinched the
tip of Azalynn's tail, making her jump. "Matter of fact," she said,
"I agree." She got to her feet, straightened her purple-dyed leather
jerkin, and bowed every bit as formally as had Moose. "'Joy, thou
beauteous spark of God, daughter of Elysium,'" she said, and smiled.
"Elizabeth R'tas Shustal, late of the Ishkarat trading vessel
da'Shivoam, your obedient servant."
Utena rubbed the back of her neck and said smilingly, "You
guys are laying it on a little thick, don't'cha think?"
"Not at all," said Moose grandly. "Merely giving our revered
vice-president's beloved her proper due. Why? Would you prefer that
we slight her, so that you may defend her honor?" he asked with a
twinkle in his eye.
Utena laughed. "Thanks, I think we've both had enough of
-that- kind of thing... "
Anthy chuckled. "Indeed. Well - I'm very pleased to meet you
all. I hope you'll all bear with me and help me while I learn to live
in your world... "
"Oh, I shouldn't worry about -that- over-much, what?" asked
Devlin Carter. "Some of us are still trying to work that out
ourselves, and we were -born- there."
"Hey, that reminds me!" said Utena as Amanda Dessler smiled
indulgently and patted Devlin's arm. "When are -you two- getting
married?"
Devlin and Amanda blinked, glancing at each other, then back
at Utena. "Er, well... I'm not actually sure," he admitted in an
I've-just-thought-of-that tone. He looked to Amanda. "Are you?"
Amanda smiled. "A formal date," she said diplomatically, "has
not yet been fixed." Then, more casually, she said, "I suspect it
will be next summer - in 2407 - when Devlin has graduated from the
Institute and received his commission as an IPO Psionic Services
officer. For now, our betrothal is enough to keep the Earth Alliance
government at bay."
Rina Dragonaar, who had remained quiet and smiling throughout,
leaned against Devlin's opposite side, ran a hand up his leg, and
added, "And he's pretty much got all the advantages of married life
-anyway-, whenever they'll let him off Jyurai... isn't that right,
Carter?"
Kitarina Dragonaar, Amanda reflected as she and all the others
(Devlin included, blush and all) laughed, was the only person Amanda
had ever seen or heard of who could make the word "Carter" sound sexy.
Kate consulted her pocket watch, tucked it away, and then
announced, "OK, k-kids, b-b-back to work. W-we've got one more s-set
as the f-full orchestra before d-d-dinnertime... "
The celebration stretched through the afternoon into the
evening, with periods of feasting alternating in a kind of tidal
pattern with more dancing. Corwin wondered idly (though he was
certainly not complaining) why the Valkyrie kept kissing him whenever
they were finished dancing with him. He'd been kissed more tonight
than in the rest of his life combined. It wasn't just the Valkyrie,
either - even the Rune Knights had gotten into the act. Though they
were clearly embarrassed to be doing so where their families might
see, they went ahead anyway, almost as thought it was a mission.
Corwin was beginning to suspect some kind of grave and inscrutable
feminine conspiracy. Even -Gudrun- had kissed him when she'd had her
turn on the floor with him, and she was the only Valkyrie he could say
for reasonably certain wasn't even ON the (now-forbidden but, he
suspected, still surreptitiously maintained) odds board.
The structure of the band changed several times. After their
initial orchestral performances, they ate and then pared down their
numbers, metamorphosing from a full orchestra into a concert band. After
the next pause, the group shrank further (more of the student members
less connected to the festivities returning home to rest and consider
what they had seen), and became a smaller, tighter jazz/swing band.
Corwin had learned swing dancing from the same person he'd
learned his ballroom dancing from, his Aunt Urd, who was as big an
aficionado of the classic forms as could be found. He'd honed it on
several occasions when he and Fuu Hououji, to whose culture it was one
of the Disciplines of Righteous Grooviness, had gone (Dutch, of
course) to the South Seas or the Cobalt in downtown New Avalon.
Now, he was surprised to be asked to dance by R. Dorothy
Wayneright as Kate's swing band struck up "Sing, Sing, Sing" with
Devlin Carter behind the trap. He knew Dorothy could -sing- jazz,
although for personal reasons she didn't often like to; but he hadn't
realized she knew swing dancing.
Well, she could, and very well too; and as they danced, the
others moved back to watch, until they had the floor all to
themselves. The song went on for quite a while; it was a Benny
Goodman standard, which meant a spotlight role for Heather McClellan,
which meant soloist one-upsmanship for as long as the band could stand
to keep it up.
Corwin was flushed, both with exertion and exhilaration, when
the song at last ended and they quit the floor. So, thanks to her
sophisticated biomimetic systems, was Dorothy. As they reached the
edge of the floor, she turned to Corwin and leaned close to murmur
something; he could feel the warmth radiating from her face on his as
their cheeks almost touched.
"Thank you," she said, "that was lovely."
Then, to his infinite surprise, -Dorothy- kissed him, the
first time she had ever done so. It was sweet and tender, soft and
warm, and compared very favorably to other kisses Corwin had had in
his life; and as he stood, scratching in bafflement at the back of his
head, and watched her slip away back toward the band riser, he
couldn't help but feel a very brief pang of envy for Miki Kaoru.
What -was- going on with these girls today? Not that he
-minded- if it was National Kiss Corwin Day, but really...
In the early evening, the jazz band broke up, all but the
members of the IBGF returning home to their families, and the main
dinner was served, the trestle tables groaning with the finest and
most copious output Odin's kitchens under the supervision of
Verthandi could produce. Table service was provided by an army of
tuxedoed functionaries, many of them elven, but two small and
robotic. Anthy, who had never seen Tiny Robo and Lesser Mazinger, was
delighted and amused, and more impressed than ever by Corwin's gifts.
Toasts were made, mainly to the health of the newlyweds and
their long lives together, and to Corwin's impending career as a
divinity. There was poetry by the best bards of Asgard and Alfheim
honoring the deeds of the young god and his friends. A few of the
gods made speeches. Primary among these was Balder Goldenlight's
eloquent expression of his and Asgard's hope for a long and prosperous
relationship between Asgard and the reborn Cephiro, and an end to the
generations of uncertainty and doubt that had existed between the two
realms, more closely related than anyone in either world knew.
When Anthy's turn came to propose a toast, she rose, and
looked a bit more somber than the occasion seemed to call for.
The reason for that became apparent when she said,
"I owe my being here today to many people. Most of them are
here to accept my gratitude in person... but one is not. We were
never really friends, but she did for me a thing which only a friend
would do. That act made it possible for me to hold out until the Rune
Knights and my Prince could come to my rescue... and it cost her
everything she had. More than any other effect of all that has
transpired, I wish that I could take that back... " She bowed her
head, took a deep breath, and then continued, "... but since that's
beyond my power, all I can do is thank her, and hope that somehow,
somewhere, she hears my thanks and knows how deep in my heart they
come from."
She paused again, collecting herself, and then raised her
glass.
"To Nanami Kiryuu," she said softly, her voice resounding in
the sudden hush with which her speech had filled the hall; and,
quietly, all present - even those who had no idea what she was
talking about - softly repeated the name, raised their glasses, and
drank. Tears shone in Mitsuru Tsuwabuki's eyes, but he manfully kept
himself from uttering a sound other than to whisper Nanami's name in a
bare whisper. On either side of him, Keiko and Wakaba patted his hands
sympathetically, earning a wan but grateful smile.
The somber mood introduced by Anthy's toast dissipated only
slowly over the course of dinner, but by the time the desserts were
served, the conversation was lively again - the joy of the occasion
won out, and those who had known Nanami just before the end agreed
that, whatever her faults, she would never have wanted bad news
concerning her to ruin a good party. Not when her sacrifice had been
in part to ensure that this party could happen in the first place.
After dinner, the dance floor was cleared for displays of
martial skill. Kaitlyn performed a series of blindingly fast and
complex kenjutsu kata in her family style, the Asagiri Katsujinkenryuu;
then her father joined her on the floor and the two of them fought -
with naked steel, after the tradition - a Rose Duel, in honor of the
bridal couple. The Midgard-Knight lost with panache, ending up almost
upended into a punch bowl by his daughter's ferocious assault, and
laughed the contented laugh of a master bested by his favorite pupil
as he went back to his seat.
Kate then fought Juri and lost; Juri astonished the company by
defending her "title" against three of the Valkyrie before being
bested by Miki. Miki promptly lost to Amanda, who found herself
honorably bested by Vigdis Brightblade, who trounced Saionji and
barely beat Liza Shustal, then lost to Uum'y R'yuu-z'ky, who whomped
Nall, defrocked the Duelist t'skrang T'skaia, and edged out Fuu but
lost to Hikaru, who in turn defeated the Duelists' faculty advisor
Professor Kraalgh, handled Mia Ausa, then put up a tremendous fight
that had the whole company of Asgard on its feet and cheering before
losing, just barely, to Corwin Ravenhair.
With Stick, Corwin proceeded to hold the floor against all
comers, including Kraalgh's avid student B'Elanna Torres, several more
of his fellow Valkyrie, and his half-brother Leonard - until, at last,
goaded by the chanting of the guests and the cheerful prodding of her
Rose Bride, the Knight of the Rose took the floor against her fellow
Rune Knight to decide the matter once and for all.
/* Seat Belts "Tank!" _Cowboy Bebop_ */
If Corwin's duel with Hikaru had had the house standing up and
roaring, Utena's duel with Corwin nearly brought it down. They
started out tentative, unsure of each other, having never before faced
each other in battle; but as they picked up assurance and speed, they
became almost like the interworking parts of a fantastic machine,
Corwin's strength, Valkyrie-trained skill, and reach perfectly
counterbalanced by Utena's speed, agility and devil's own luck.
No less a personage than Tyr Grimjaws, god of war, declared it one of
the ten most thrilling personal battles he had ever witnessed, and Tyr
was there when Fortress Maximus clashed with Surtur at the gates of
the Golden City.
They ranged from one side of the room to the other, up into
the bandstand, down across the tables, at one point into the rafters.
They fought for almost half an hour, and never once did the din of
their respective cheering sections abate for an instant. The crash
and bang of the Thorn of the Rose and Stick meeting each other again
and again echoed into the sunset streets of Asgard along with the
booming roar of the assembled guests from the open windows of the
Great Hall.
But at last, as so many things do, the duel turned on the
thinnest of margins. Panting, sweating, and grinning like total fools
from ear to ear, the combatants clashed together for the thousandth
time, came apart with a ringing scrape, and two roses, one white, one
silver, fell to the stone floor of the Great Hall with a soft rustling
sound clearly audible in the sudden hush.
Corwin looked down at them, squared himself, and bowed deeply
at the waist as Utena saluted him crusader-fashion with the Thorn of
the Rose. The room erupted in applause and cheers. No one minded
that this battle had ended in a draw; if anything, in fact, it struck
most of those assembled as eminently -right- somehow.
The spectators flooded onto the floor, and within a few
minutes, the confused turmoil of congratulation had turned back into
dancing - though of a different sort, as Kaitlyn and her four
schoolmates resumed the stage by themselves and completed the Deedlit
Satori Mandeville Memorial Institute Student Symphony Orchestra's
transformation into the Art of Noise.
Most of the elder members of the gathering excused themselves
during this smallest band's setup phase, and it was a smaller,
tighter-knit group of mostly schoolmates and close friends of the
three being honored who finally remained, laughing, singing, and
dancing into the night. One by one, as they got the chance, everyone
changed into civvies, the uniforms and finery disappearing.
At that point, it basically became a school dance, a less
regimented, more intimate precursor to the spring formals that many
schools, including both DSM and Tenjou Academy, had scheduled. All
the sins of the past were forgiven, at least for the moment, and the
two groups - friends from Midgard, friends from Cephiro - blended
together until Corwin, as the latter world's new Pillar, realized with
a private grin that he'd just -have- to make communication between the
two worlds easier, or a number of these people would hound him for the
rest of his life.
As he stood off to the side, showered and changed into his
more familiar and comfortable Midgard-style traveling clothes, Corwin
was listening to Kate's passionate cover of the old Bonnie Tyler
classic "Holding Out for a Hero". To his faint embarrassment, she had
dedicated the song to him (where have all the good men gone and where
are all the gods?); but it was a good song, all the same, and he
appreciated the sentiment.
Presently he felt a hand on his arm. Turning, he saw Utena,
combing out her slightly damp hair with her fingers, dressed in her
old Ohtori - well, he guessed "Tenjou", now - uniform.
"Force of habit?" he asked with a raised eyebrow.
"I could ask you the same thing," Utena replied, flicking at
the sleeve of his blue denim shirt. "I just like the way this looks,
that's all," she went on.
"I can't argue with that," said Corwin, taking her in from
collar tabs to saddle shoes and grinning with self-mocking lechery.
She punched him in the shoulder.
"You got named a -god- today," she said with a grin of her
own, "you'd think that would mean you'd have to grow up."
"I'll never grow up," Corwin replied piously; then, with a
slightly soberer tone, he added, "And I'll -never- stop thinking
you're beautiful."
Her grin became a more serious fond smile, and she put her
hand on his shoulder where she'd hit him. "Are you OK?"
"Better than OK," he replied. "I'm terrific. Why?"
"Well, you kept talking about the rigors of being the Pillar
and what it would have done to Anthy, but... you don't seem to be much
different. Understand, I don't doubt you - I'm just curious. What
makes it different for you? Is it because you're a god?"
He nodded. "A mortal, even one as remarkable as Anthy, would
have to devote all, or as close to all as makes no difference, of her
energies to maintaining the integrity and security of Cephiro. A
mortal Pillar can do nothing else - absolutely nothing else! - but
pray for Cephiro's well-being. At all times. Forever. And - well,
what influences the Pillar influences Cephiro."
Utena paled a little bit, imagining what would have become of
her love, and the world of her birth, if Akio had won. If Corwin
hadn't yanked the stacked deck out of the Deputy Chairman's hands and
reshuffled it...
"Me," Corwin went on in a lighter tone, "I just think good
thoughts in the back of my mind, and everything stays hunkey-dorey,
even from here. It's because Cephiro manifested spontaneously, out of
the weird energy currents and such in the space where the Heavens and
Midgard overlap," he explained. "It's not technically one of the Nine
Worlds, so the influence of the World-Engine doesn't maintain it.
Somehow the Pillar evolved to stand in for it - basically doing for
Cephiro what the Engine does for the rest of Creation, by hand."
"But... you still have to do that for the rest of your life?"
Corwin shrugged. "Once you guys are on your way, I'm going to
head back down and see if I can build the place its own little
World-Engine, automate the process as much as I can. I'll always be
linked to Cephiro - it's part of me, now, or I'm part of it, or both -
but I can take most of the load off if I build the right tools." He
grinned. "I'm the Lord of the Great Machines," he added. "I ought to
be able to work something out. Anthy doesn't have that luxury. I did
what I had to do."
"I know," said Utena, smiling. "And we both love you for it.
I'll say it as often as I need to, because I never want you to forget
it."
He patted her hand on his shoulder. "You think I ever could?"
he replied.
"All I'm saying is, you -better- not," she replied.
"I think we can trust him not to," said a voice from the other
side of him, and Anthy took his other arm, smiling cheerfully. She
had changed from her Rose Bride gown to a simpler skirt-and-blouse
affair that actually looked a lot like a school uniform itself, but
her hair was still down and her eyes unfettered, and she looked quite
charming.
"You're wearing your old uniform too, I see. Force of habit?"
Utena asked with a wink for Corwin.
"That, and it's the only other outfit I have left that isn't
Asgardian," Anthy replied. "The rest of my clothes got... lost in the
shuffle."
"Hey, what happened to your glasses? I know you have a spare
set - I just figured you weren't wearing them before because of the
occasion."
"I threw them away," Anthy replied lightly, and then added in
an undertone, "I never needed them."
"Oh," said Utena, and she filled in the gaps and abandoned the
topic then and there. "So - you think Corwin understands that he'll
never get us out of his life?"
"I hope so," Anthy replied, smiling. "I haven't even found
out what his favorite foods are yet."
"Well, I'm partial to curry," Corwin said.
"I can do that," said Anthy serenely.
Utena dropped her forehead into her palm. "Oh, God," she
said, her voice filled with comic dread.
Kyouichi Saionji happened to be passing by on his way back to
the dance floor with a pair of glass-bottled fruit drinks in his
hands. Overhearing this conversation, he paused and turned to face
them, his long, lean face expressionless.
"Chu," he intoned gravely. "Chu chu. Chu? Chu."
Then he turned on his heel and marched away to deliver his
companion's beverage.
Anthy and Utena looked across Corwin at each other in utter
disbelief, then shattered into hilarity, each of them hanging from one
of the bemused young god's arms to keep from falling to the floor.
Utena just thought it was hilarious at face value. Anthy, not yet as
familiar as Utena with the green-haired Duelist's change of heart, was
absolutely -stunned- that Saionji, of all people, could not only find
something other than irritation in being reminded of that embarrassing
incident, but actually make a -joke- about it! At his own expense, no
less!
Corwin, who hadn't heard The Curry Story, just stood there,
holding them up, wondering what that had been all about.
As she got control of herself back, Anthy reflected that the
silver-haired girl, Azalynn, must have a miraculous power indeed if
she'd given Saionji back his sense of humor about himself. She would
have to remember to thank the girl for that. And the others, too, for
supporting him, befriending him. Utena's roommate, Kaitlyn, especially;
she'd been the one to teach him the swordsmanship that had enabled him
to get past his disastrous association with Touga Kiryuu -and- defeat
the brainwashed swordsman Lafarga with the help of the Rune Knights.
Yes, Anthy was very pleased with the healing she saw in
Saionji. When he'd been the Rose Champion, he'd treated her roughly,
but somewhere inside his damaged psyche he really had cared for her;
and like all of them caught up in Akio's twisted game, he'd done more
than his share of suffering. If Anthy had not forgiven him, she never
would have allowed him to give her away at her wedding, and now she
was happy to see him able to be happy himself. He, at least, would
not be a casualty of her brother's madness after all.
"Hey," said Utena suddenly. "Where -is- Chu Chu?" Then she
paused, a troubled looking coming over her face as she feared she'd
stepped into a hole again, but Anthy only smiled.
"Oh, he's quite safe," she said. "He's sulking right now;
when I was roaming the world, fleeing from Akio, I sent him back to be
with his own kind, even though he wanted to stay with me. I couldn't
let him suffer what I knew was coming next. Corwin's Aunt Bell found
him, intending to bring him here with all our other friends for the
ceremony, but... " Her smile was a bit wry and rueful. "He's still
mad at me for sending him away."
Utena grinned. "He'll get over it."
"Mm," Anthy agreed, nodding. "When we revisit Cephiro next
weekend, I'll beg for his forgiveness."
"Let a piece of cheesecake do the begging and he's yours
forever," Utena advised her, and they both laughed again; this time
Corwin, who had heard enough about Chu Chu from Utena to understand,
laughed with them.
/* Journey "To Be Alive Again" _Arrival_ */
The band started a pounding rock number then, and, grinning
and shaking off the dust of old times, the three all went and plunged
into the dance floor. They soon lost track of each other in the
melee. Utena found herself dancing (such as one could to such a song)
with Miki, who was being spelled in the band by Amanda Dessler (the
very rhythm guitarist he had, in fact, replaced), and was looking as
relaxed and carefree as Utena had ever seen him. Occasionally she
caught glimpses of Anthy apparently dancing with, of all people, Juri.
After her post-duel shower, the redhead hadn't bothered putting her
hair back up in its usual French curls; the effect was interesting to
say the least, and at one earlier point had almost caused Kate's
brother Leonard to put his own eye out with the straw in his drink.
For his part, Corwin ended up dancing with Hikaru Shidou, and
having a damn fine time.
When she was done dancing with Juri, Anthy found her mind
returning to a previous train of thought. For a moment, she tracked
it back; then, nodding, she slipped quickly upstairs to rummage
through the one small suitcase of her possessions which had survived
everything that had happened to her of late. Returning to the Great
Hall, she scanned the crowd, saw that Utena was still dancing (this
time with Corwin's brother Leonard), and, with a private little smile
on her face, worked her way through the crowd until she found Saionji.
As luck would have it, the green-haired Duelist was off to the
side, sharing those fruit drinks he'd been carrying with Wakaba. That
was convenient; it saved Anthy the trouble of rounding Wakaba up as
well, then herding the two of them off to some quiet place like the
one they were already in.
"Oh, hey, Anthy," said Wakaba, grinning. "Having a good
time?"
"I can't think when I've had a better one," Anthy replied.
"Can I talk to the two of you for a moment?"
"Sure," said Wakaba, putting her drink down on the nearby
table and standing away from it. "What's up?"
Saionji, too, put down his drink and looked attentive.
"Some time ago," said Anthy slowly, choosing her words with
care, "the three of us were all involved in an unfortunate set of
circumstances. They were not circumstances of my making, but... I had
a part in them, and did nothing to prevent them. In the process, you
both were hurt. I... I want to apologize for my part in that,
and... "
She reached into her pocket, removed a small item, and placed
it in Wakaba's hand. "... And, Wakaba, I believe this is yours."
Wakaba raised her hand and looked at the object Anthy had just
placed across her palm. It was a small pin, carefully carved in the
shape of a leaf and painted gold, meant to be worn in the hair.
Wakaba gasped softly with recognition at the sight of it; so, too, did
Saionji, leaning over at her side to look. Then they both turned
their eyes to Anthy, who stood with a look of remorse and trepidation,
waiting for them to react.
"I'm sorry," Anthy told them softly, under the music.
Wakaba looked from Anthy to Saionji to the pin and back again,
then made a sound somewhere between a sob and a laugh and abruptly
threw her arms around the slightly startled, certainly bemused darker
girl.
"You couldn't help it," she murmured to Anthy while embracing
her. "Utena told me everything. It's all right."
"Perhaps not," Anthy replied hesitantly, "but... I feel now as
if I should have at least tried to stop it... "
Wakaba stepped back, hands on Anthy's shoulders, and shook her
head. "Don't fret about it now," she said firmly, shaking her head
with a smile. "It's over. All of it's over and behind us. Isn't
that what you told Kyouichi this morning?"
Anthy blinked, looking from Wakaba to Saionji and back, and
then smiled. "I suppose it is," she said.
Wakaba grinned, fixed the pin in her hair where it belonged,
and then said, "Thank you, Anthy. After all this time, it was a
beautiful thing to do."
Saionji nodded gravely. "Yes, thank you," he said; then he
seemed to hesitate.
Anthy and Saionji had known each other for years; had once,
for a time, under the rules of the Grand Tournament, been engaged. In
all that time, he had bullied her, cherished her, cajoled her, shouted
at her, adored her, slapped her, and stalked her; but in all that
time, he had never just -hugged- her, and now he wanted to, but wasn't
really sure he should.
She seemed to sense that, and so took the decision out of his
hands.
Across the room, Utena spied the embrace (which was soon
joined by Wakaba) out of the corner of her eye, turned to get a better
look, and smiled. She'd seen Anthy dancing with Saionji earlier,
during the formal part of the reception, when he'd still been in his
uniform and she in her wedding dress; it heartened her considerably
that Anthy was taking his change in spirit to heart the same way Utena
had. Now that he'd recovered his senses, he was a good friend to
have. And Wakaba... well, Wakaba was Wakaba.
Utena grinned at the thought and dove into the crowd in search
of a beverage.
Off to one side of the band riser, Sergei yawned and paced the
floor up and down. He hadn't quite got the knack of hanging around up
on the riser with the band during their performances; he didn't yet
know them well enough to anticipate their movements, and until he
could prowl among them without being underfoot, he didn't want to try
it. So instead he wandered around the perimeter, mooching bits of
food and getting his ears ruffled by various and sundry.
At one point he rounded the front corner and came nose to nose
with Ein.
"Hrm?" said Serge.
"Wurf," replied Ein.
The two animals sniffed each other's noses for a moment,
regarded each other judiciously, then seemed to nod with
satisfaction. From that point on, they teamed up, doubling the
effectiveness of their powers of cuteness to acquire snacks and
attention.
The other two Rune Knights - as well as just about everyone
else who'd met him - were very impressed by Nall's new form. The fact
that he -had- a humanoid form, and apparently the aesthetic to go with
it, had left Utena vaguely disquieted, but she wasn't sure why, and
eventually concluded that it was a glitch in her system brought on by
the fact that she was running on such a high emotional pitch today.
Now he, Umi, Fuu and Hikaru stood off to one side, gathered
away from the rest of the crowd so Nall, who had just finished talking
with a tall, ornately dressed gentleman, could ask them something.
"Listen - now that you've been able to tell your families
you're OK," he said, "how would you feel about not going home for
another day or two?"
Hikaru blinked. "Oh... I dunno," she said. "I've really been
missing home... "
"I, too," said Fuu. "And I'm sure we have a tremendous amount
of schoolwork to catch up on if we're to recover from our unexpected
absence and complete the school year on time."
"Why?" said Umi. "What do you want us to do?"
"Well," said Nall, "it's just a formality, you understand, but
Ambassador Harken's just reminded me that I have to go to Alfheim in
the morning to present myself to the Draconian Court and be confirmed
as the White Dragon's Heir and all that stuff... and I thought maybe
you guys would like to be my guests, see the sights of Draconia and
all. After the ceremony I could show you around. It'd only be for a
day - I can get you all home on Sunday, so you can get back to school
on Monday. Heck, I might go back to school on Monday myself," he
added, grinning. "Be too boring just hanging around the house without
Rocket Boy around."
"The Draconian Court... " Hikaru murmured, her eyes getting
faraway. Just seeing Nall in his fully draconian form had been
impressive. An entire -city- of them, that would be something -worth-
a few more days away from home to see! Glancing at her friends, she
could see that they felt the same way.
"What do you guys think?" she asked. "Think you can swing it
with your parents?"
"I think Mother and Father would be amenable," said Fuu
thoughtfully, "to a brief delay in the name of cultural outreach.
Father -is- a diplomat, after all," she added with a small smile.
"My parents trust me too -much-," Umi added wryly. "What
about you, Hikaru? Your brothers are likely to drop a koul'ia'kk."
Hikaru grinned; she didn't understand the expression, exactly,
but she could glark its meaning from context. "Satoru will understand.
He can keep the other two out of our hair long enough for me to get
away. I'll have to put up with another tugging match when I get
home... " Her eyes sparkled as she thought of Draconia again. "But
it'll be worth it!"
"OK then!" said Nall with a relieved smile. "We'll go in the
morning. Now, for the moment... " He yawned, then seemed to collapse
in on himself, his garments and equipment vanishing like smoke. "Much
better," he remarked, and hopped up onto Umi's shoulder in his old
familiar flying-cat form. At her curious, askance look, he rubbed his
head against her cheek and damaged ear and told her, "It doesn't look
like much, but it's home."
Umi chuckled, reached up, and scratched at his ears. "You're
a real piece of work, cat," she repeated.
"Yeah," said Nall between purrs as he wound his tail gently
around her neck, "I know. So are you, long-ears... so are you."
Fuu and Hikaru glanced at each other and suppressed giggles.
For another hour or two, the party rocked onward. Several of
the Valkyrie had remained when the rest of the elder types quit the
scene; most of the ones who were still there were the younger ones,
not so much elder to the celebrants as all that, and they fit in quite
nicely.
Then, between songs, Kaitlyn was interrupted in her fiddling
around with the settings of her rack of electronic instruments by the
appearance out of the crowd of Skuld Ravenhair, one of the only
(nominal) elders to have remained throughout. They had a brief,
animated conversation, into which Moose was beckoned, and then that
august fellow, grinning from ear to ear, stepped up to the microphone.
"Ladies and gentlemen, boys and girls," he boomed, not needing
the amplification gear in the slighest, "I've just been informed by
Corwin's mom - " Skuld gave a girlish wave, " - that we, the band,
have been terribly remiss in our duty. It's somebody very special's
birthday today, and we haven't passed on birthday greetings. So please,
do your best to help us as we wish a very-nearly-belated happy birthday
to our very own bandleader, the irreplaceable Kaitlyn Hutchins, who
turned seventeen today!"
Kate blinked, having utterly forgotten that it was her
birthday, as the group turned and applauded at her.
Devlin Carter started a hot shuffle backbeat, Azalynn slammed
down a power chord, Moose's hammering bass jumped down on it, Amanda's
axe slung in the rhythm line, and Skuld yanked back the microphone
stand and belted out,
"You say it's your birthday?
Well it's my birthday too, yeah
They say it's your birthday
We're gonna have a good time
I'm glad it's your birthday
Happy birthday to you!"
The band finished out the old Beatles standard in grand style,
and followed it up with a few more fast tracks; then, as the hour grew
late, they subsided, winding their audience down gently and replacing
the mood of gleeful celebration with a warm, calm, almost drowsy
sentimentality - the perfect mood to end such a day with.
They retired one by one from the stage, until finally only
Kate and her keyboards remained. The room filled with a hushed and
expectant silence.
Kate adjusted a few things, plugged across a couple of
modules, then mused for a few moments over a bank of flickering green
lights on a panel behind her. Finally she turned back to the
assembled, switched on her stand mic, and spoke softly into it. This
came as a bit of a shock to those who had never heard her speak, and
had been wondering why Moose always did the talking on the podium.
"A l-little m-m-more than a y-year and a h-h-h-half ag-go,"
she said, "I f-f-first heard the s-story of Utena T-T-Tenjou and
A-Anthy Himem-miya. I w-wrote the l-l-lyrics to this s-song th-that
n-night."
She smiled. "If you all d-d-don't m-mind, I'd l-like the
d-dance floor c-c-cleared. As th-this celeb-b-bration b-began, s-so
sh-should it end."
Obediently, the floor cleared, except for Utena and Anthy, who
stood gazing up at Kate and her equipment on the stage with rapt
attention.
"Th-this is m-m-my song f-for the P-P-Prince of Ceph-phiro and
h-her R-Rose Bride," said Kate softly. "I h-hope it p-p-pleases
them."
Then, switching off her lamp so that the only light on her
face came from the readouts and indicator lamps of her equipment
(their reflected glow on her glasses at this angle making her eyes
invisible), she put her fingers to the keys and began to play. It
began as a quiet, almost elegiac piano line, then swelled to meet her
voice as she raised it to begin:
"Listen as the wind blows from across the Great Divide
Voices trapped in yearning, memories trapped in time
The night is my companion and solitude my guide
Would I spend forever here and not be satisfied?"
With their hands linked, their fingers interlaced, and their
eyes locked on each other's, Utena and Anthy began to dance.
"And I would be the one to hold you down,
Kiss you so hard -
I'll take your breath away
And after I'd wipe away the tears
Just close your eyes, dear"
By now Kate had hit her stride, her voice stronger and more
passionate, her fingers stroking music from the keys with an almost
sensuous deftness. The flickering lights of the equipment around her
made it look almost as though she were surrounded by a gentle fire as
she began the second verse. She glanced up from the keys at her
audience, seeing them dancing closer together, and then smiled
sidelong at one of the observers to the side, one of the only ones to
be looking at her rather than the two women dancing. Juri's return
smile was small, and surprisingly shy for so forceful a woman, but it
was enough to fire Kate's voice with a new heat as she launched into
the next verse.
"Through this world I stumbled, so many times betrayed
Trying to find an honest word, to find the truth enslaved
Oh you speak to me in riddles and you speak to me in rhymes
My body aches to breathe your breath, your words keep me alive
And I would be the one to hold you down,
Kiss you so hard -
I'll take your breath away
And after I'd wipe away the tears
Just close your eyes, dear"
Kate let the piano line take over for a while, following its
lead through a short and pretty bridge. Her audience of two weren't
so much dancing now as standing embraced, swaying slowly on their
feet, but that didn't matter to Kate. What mattered was that her song
was connecting with them. That was the point in all performance,
after all. This knowledge sent still a further surge of emotion in
her voice as she flowed into the last of the song.
"Into this night I wander, it's morning that I dread
Another day of knowing of the path I fear to tread
Oh into the sea of waking dreams I follow without pride
'Cause nothing stands between us here and I won't be denied
And I would be the one to hold you down,
Kiss you so hard -
I'll take your breath away
And after I'd wipe away the tears
Just close your eyes... "
Her voice and the piano's died away as one, so sweetly and yet
suddenly that the silence stretched for almost a minute, the whole
room seeming to hold its breath.
When at last Utena and Anthy broke the kiss that had started
during the final chorus, they turned almost identical tear-tracked
smiles to Kaitlyn's perch, stood shoulder to shoulder, and bowed to
her, their hands still tightly linked between them.
Kaitlyn smiled fondly down at them, reached down, and flicked
the master cutoff switch, plunging her console into darkness; and when
the others' eyes adjusted to the change, she was gone.
Applause washed the room, and the gathered knew it was time
for the party to end. With final congratulations for the rose couple,
they filtered away one by one, until at last only Corwin, Utena, and
Anthy remained.
"Well," said Corwin, "I guess this is it."
"I guess so," said Utena.
"You guys have a plan?"
"Um... not really," Utena admitted. "I guess we'll stay here
tonight, and maybe go to Jeraddo in the morning... "
Corwin smiled. "If you don't mind my butting in," he said, I
have an alternate suggestion."
"OK... what?"
"Well, as it happens, I have this little place on Titan that
I'm not using this weekend... "
"-You- have... ?" Utena asked, her eyebrows cocking.
Corwin grinned. "Dad's idea of an Ascension tribute," he
said. "It's traditional to give gold, but you know how Dad feels
about plain money as a special-occasion gift."
Utena's eyebrows rose. "Really? Corwin, that's awesome!" To
Anthy's puzzled expression, she explained, "Corwin's father built a
castle on a moon called Titan - we spent last Christmas there. It's
beautiful there, and there's a planet - well, you'll see - Corwin,
that's terrific. Are you sure?"
If Corwin's smile hid anything less cheerful beneath it, it
did so very well. "Sure I'm sure," he replied easily. "I'm going to
be busy anyway - I have to go to Alfheim to be witness at Nall's
confirmation tomorrow, and then I'm headed back to Cephiro to sort
things out with Clef and Presea and so forth - you know, about the
school, and the preparations for -next- weekend, and all that. There
won't be anybody but you for sixty miles in any direction, except the
maintenance droids. I recommend the room at the top of the East
Tower," he added in a confidential tone.
It suddenly occurred to Utena that they were basically
discussing her honeymoon, and she felt her face go bright red.
"C'mon outside," said Corwin with a light grin. "I've got a
surprise for you."
Standing at the curb in front of the deserted Great Hall,
gleaming in the glow of the sleeping Golden City's streetlamps, was a
familiar automobile. Utena paused for an instant upon seeing it,
then walked slowly around it, a slow, sly smile spreading across her
face as she took it in. It was low and lean, with snarling lines and
glittering chrome - Skuld Ravenhair's CX-68, its red and white
bodywork polished to a mirror shine, sporting New Avalon tags with the
license code TENJOU-1.
"With Mom's compliments as well as my own," said Corwin. "She
checked it out from one end to the other this morning." He tossed a
keyring across the open convertible's cabin; she caught it offhanded
and regarded the keys with that same smile unchanged.
Utena grinned at him, came around the car to embrace him. He
leaned close to her ear and murmured, "The Wonder's at the Port of
Asgard, fueled up and ready to go. The castle's waiting, everything's
prepped. Have a good time, go back anytime you want, and don't worry
about wearing out your welcome; I'm gonna be busy building Cephiro a
World-Engine until summer anyway." He grinned and added slyly, "I'll
be sure and knock first if I stop by some weekend."
Utena hugged him a little tighter, then backed away, sobering
a bit.
"Corwin," she said softly, "thank you so much. For
everything. I'll... I'll see you when we get back."
"Enjoy yourselves," said Corwin; and then, with pure and
simple honesty, "You've earned it. I love you. Be happy. Drive
safely. Now g'wan before I get mushy."
He kissed her goodbye, held the passenger's door for Anthy
(receiving from her a quick kiss of his own and a soft "Thank you, Sir
Corwin"), and then stood alone on the sidewalk, waving as they drove
away. Anthy waved to him as the car roared off down the Boulevard.
"I'll have to get her to stop calling me 'Sir Corwin'," he
murmured to himself.
Then he sniffed once, coughed, turned and walked alone up the
deserted Street of the Eternal Heroes, whistling "A Whiter Shade of
Pale" as he trudged, hands in his pockets, toward his apartment.
By a curious coincidence, his sister Kaitlyn was thinking of
that very same song at that moment, as she stood in the bathroom of
the guest room she'd been using and checked over her appearance in the
mirror. (And her face at first just ghostly... )
She knew, intellectually, that there was nothing to fear; but
intellectual knowledge wasn't much use against the apprehension that
assaulted her now. She looked down at her hands and saw that they
were trembling.
Stop it, Kaitlyn, right now, she told herself sternly. This
is ridiculous. It's your seventeenth birthday. You can't let this
thing rule you for the rest of your life. Does Utena? Does Anthy?
Didn't you promise your father that you wouldn't? Besides - there's
no comparison. None at all. You have no reason to be afraid...
It didn't work.
Swallowing, she turned and went out into the bedroom anyway.
Juri was standing by the window in her blue nightdress, washed
in the brilliant light of Asgard's moon, and Kate had to catch her
breath. So, so beautiful...
Hearing Kate emerge, Juri turned to look at her, eyes
glittering in the moonlight. In an instant, those perceptive eyes
read the whole situation on Kate's face, and her own turned
solicitous.
That one visible sign of worry was enough to wipe out in an
instant the circumstance that had caused her to worry in the first
place, and it was with a quicker step and a braver heart that Kate
came to her side.
"Kaitlyn," said Juri softly. "Are you certain?"
Kate nodded. "Only... " she said hesitantly.
"Yes?"
"I j-j-just w-want you to kn-know up f-f-front," said Kate;
then she chuckled, a little nervously, and said, "I have n-n-no id-dea
w-what I'm d-doing."
Juri laughed - not at her, but with her - and replied,
"Kaitlyn, would you like to know a secret?"
"S-sure."
"Neither do I."
Later, Kaitlyn had the following two thoughts as she drifted
off into a warm and blissful unconsciousness:
For two people who didn't have any idea what they were doing,
that was all right; and
I guess I've found another circumstance under which I don't
stutter.
She chuckled at the thought of running that notion by Marty
Rose, and went to sleep.
/* Blues Traveler "Girl Inside My Head" _Bridge_ */
Eyrie Productions, Unlimited When all is said and done
presented I wish I needed no one
UNDOCUMENTED FEATURES Never was up to me
FUTURE IMPERFECT Just something in her way
- Symphony of the Sword No. 2 - that sets me free
Seventh Movement: It seems so easy
Ceremony and Celebration
And yeah I try to pay attention
The Cast But there's only four things
(in order of appearance) running through my mind:
Corwin Ravenhair
Utena Tenjou How hard will it be
Anthy Himemiya if she is nice to me?
Kaitlyn Hutchins How bad will it get
Sergei if I let her get to know me?
Miki Kaoru Should she see the willing dog
R. Dorothy Wayneright or should I be a jungle cat?
Kozue Kaoru But most of all, my God
Juri Arisugawa how does she make her eyes do that?
Shiori Takatsuki And I don't need another
Odin Winterbeard girl inside my head
Urd Snowmane Girl inside my head
Thor Ironhammer
Verthandi Wishbringer Morisato Johnny be brave I say inside
Azalynn dv'Ir Natashkan As I won't take a bite
Skuld Ravenhair from the apple that she gave me
Kyouichi Saionji Still that's not what I'm after
Hikaru Shidou Still all along my mother's voice
Fuu Hououji singing "Treat her like a lady"
Uum'y R'yuu-z'ky
Nall Silverclaw And yeah I try to pay attention
Tyr Grimjaws But there's only four things
Heimdall Farseeker running through my mind:
Njord Seafarer
Frey Lightwalker How hard will it be
Freyja Lightwalker if she is nice to me?
Brunnhilde Silverspear How bad will it get
Kei Morgan if I let her get to know me?
Yuri Daniels Should she see the willing dog
Alita Ironheart or should I be a jungle cat?
Benjamin D. Hutchins But most of all, my God
Leonard W. Hutchins III how does she make her eyes do that?
Priss Morgan And I don't need another
Gai "Guy" Morgan girl inside my head
Sylvie Daniels Girl inside my head
MegaZone
Afura Mann I'm not the only one to
Dr. Lawrence R. Mann write her letters
Achika Shannon It doesn't matter anyhow
Tenchi Shannon The question isn't if, but...
Blossom Utonium
Theresa Utonium How hard will it be
Theodora Utonium if she is nice to me?
Masamichi Fujisawa How bad will it get
James Strickland if I let her get to know me?
Keiichi Morisato Should she see the willing dog
Hiroshi Morisato or should I be a jungle cat?
Mirai Morisato And most of all, my God
Makoto Morisato how does she make her eyes do that?
Fatora Morisato
Mary Broadbank How hard will it be
Master Mage Clef if she is nice to me?
Master Smith Presea How bad will it get
Balder Goldenlight if I let her get to know me?
Edward Wong Hau Pepelu Tivrusky IV Should she see the willing dog
Ein or should I be a jungle cat?
Major Motoko Kusanagi But most of all my God
T'skaia Vorokoshiga'ar how does she make her eyes do that?
Ixtixtaaqitl't'chl'Vraihelt Ishkarat And I don't need another
B'Elanna Torres girl inside my head
Mia Ausa Girl inside my head
Wakaba Shinohara
Vigdis Brightblade /* U2 (with B.B. King)
Martin Rose "When Love Comes to Town"
Hikari _Rattle & Hum */
Satoru Shidou
Masaru Shidou I was a sailor, I was lost at sea
Kakeru Shidou I was under the waves before
L'yynr'd R'yuu-z'ky love rescued me
M'belyyn'da R'yuu-z'ky I was a fighter, I could turn
The Rt. Hon. Jerry Lee Hououji on a thread
Aretha F. Hououji Now I stand accused of the things
Kuu Hououji I've said
Devlin Carter
Amanda Elektra Dessler When love comes to town I'm gonna
The Hon. J. Maurice MacEchearn IV jump that train
Kitarina Telaia Dragonaar When love comes to town I'm gonna
Gudrun Truemace catch that plane
Keiko Sonoda Maybe I was wrong to ever let you down
Mitsuru Tsuwabuki But I did what I did before love
Elizabeth R'tas Shustal came to town
Tiny Robo
Lesser Mazinger I used to make love under a red sunset
Kraalgh vestai-Kalaan I was making promises I was soon
and featuring to forget
The Valkyrior: She was pale as the lace of her
Kijana Whitestaff wedding gown
Lenneth Winternight But I left her standing before love
and all their lovable pals came to town
Music provided by Ran into a juke joint when I heard
The Deedlit Satori Mandeville a guitar scream
Memorial Institute Student The notes were turning blue,
Symphony Orchestra, Concert I was dazed and in a dream
Band, and Swing/Jazz Ensemble As the music played I saw my life
turn around
With That was the day before love came
The Art of Noise to town
with special guest stars
Mr. Devlin Carter, drums When love comes to town I'm gonna
and jump that train
Amanda Dessler, rhythm guitar When love comes to town I'm gonna
catch that plane
Event Coordinator Maybe I was wrong to ever let you down
Benjamin D. Hutchins But I did what I did before love
came to town
Caterer
Anne Cross When love comes to town I'm gonna
jump that train
Photographer When love comes to town I'm gonna
Philip J. Moyer catch that plane
Maybe I was wrong to ever let you down
Security But I did what I did before love
Martin Rose came to town
Invitations and Engravings I was there when they crucified my Lord
John Trussell I held the scabbard when the soldier
drew his sword
Staff/Set Ninja I threw the dice when they pierced
The Usual Suspects His side
But I've seen love conquer the
Dedicated with love to the Rose great divide
Bride, who has finally escaped
both the coffin and the Green Room :) When love comes to town I'm gonna
jump that train
Special Agent Not Appearing When love comes to town I'm gonna
Janice Barlow catch that plane
Maybe I was wrong to ever let you down
Anyone else not listed is there; I But I did what I did before love
just missed their name, is all. came to town
The Symphony will return